More people are reading Sanoma Magazines Finland’s women’s titles

02.03.2010

Four of Sanoma Magazines Finland’s women’s titles – Me Naiset, Gloria, Cosmopolitan, and SARA. – have attracted a total of 61,000 new readers according to the recent National Readership Survey (NRS 2009). A total of ten of the titles published by Finland’s leading magazine publisher increased their readership by 84,000.

Finland’s leading women’s weekly, Me Naiset, has been the most successful of Sanoma Magazines Finland’s titles in winning new readers, and has seen its readership rise by 23,000 to 445,000, an increase of 5.5%. SARA., designed for the adult woman, continued its success story and recorded the largest relative increase in readership, 9.2%, and is now read by 155,000 people. Readership at Finland’s leading title for young adult women, Cosmopolitan, has also moved up, by 7.8%, to 276,000; while Gloria’s readership increased 1.7%, to 302,000. The four titles in the Gloria family now have 779,000 readers.

Sanoma Magazines Finland’s newest title, the reportage-style GEO, was included in the survey for the second time and recorded 79,000 readers.

“These latest figures are positive for the magazine business as a whole, and show that the popularity of magazines is growing and is continuing to prove very solid over the longer term,” says Sanoma Magazines Finland’s CEO, Clarisse Berggårdh.

“There can be rapid changes in respect of individual titles all the same, however, and these reflect changes in reading trends. Overall, magazines addressing specific targeted readerships are continuing to become more popular, while more general, mass market titles are tending to lose readers. The success of our women’s titles in the latest survey is particularly encouraging.”

Finland’s largest subscription magazine, Aku Ankka (Donald Duck), has continued to increase its readership to a staggering 1,076,000 Finns over 12 years old. Sanoma Magazines Finland’s flagship title for the over 50s, ET-lehti, has seen a drop in its readership, to 636,000.

“It’s very important to continuously develop the content of existing products to meet the changing expectations of readers and the overall marketplace if you want to remain competitive. It’s also important for the magazine business generally,” continues Clarisse Berggårdh.

Sanoma Magazines Finland’s 27 titles in the NRS 2009 survey recorded a combined total of 6,855,000 readers and a market share of 28.6%. The company’s share of the market for women’s and family titles was higher, at 31.1%

Changes compared to NRS Reader A08/S09.

Further information: Ms. Clarisse Berggårdh, CEO, Sanoma Magazines Finland, tel. +358 (0)9 120 5020.

Sanoma Magazines Finland is Finland’s leading magazine publisher and the market leader in women’s and family magazines, children’s and juvenile publications, and consumer IT titles. Over 3 million Finns read the company’s more than 40 magazines. Sanoma Magazines Finland also produces a number of custom publications and has a strong online presence. Net sales in 2009 totalled €198.8 million.

Sanoma Magazines is part of the Sanoma Group, a strong European media group operating in diverse fields of media in over 20 countries.