"Why are new things seen as a threat rather than a source of pleasure?" says Talouselämä Editor-in-Chief Pekka Seppänen of attitudes to the Internet channel. "The Internet brings journalist and reader closer together. And yet our readers still want a printed magazine."

Editor-in-Chief Pekka Seppänen is bored with talk of the crisis in the fi nancial press. Could finance magazines be doing badly? "This is an optical illusion. If an individual paper is doing badly, that doesn't mean the whole sector is in trouble. It simply means that that particular paper is not coping with the competition."

Taloussanomat which ceased appearing in print and went over to the Internet at the turn of the year, and Kauppalehti are newspapers. Not many Finnish newspapers - apart from Aamulehti - have been able to increase their circulation in recent years. "If there is a crisis, then it is a newspaper crisis. Their circulation trend is downwards, and yet publishers who do their job properly are coping very well financially." The Editor-in-Chief's own prescription is a simple, but successful one: "At Talouselämä we make a paper that people fi nd relevant. Journalism has to be useful and enjoyable, and it has to provide people with new experiences.

"We make journalism that people are willing to pay for," he says emphatically. "We use our own brains, we refine information, rather than just passing it on, we take trouble on the reader's behalf. That is the road to success in journalism." This policy seems to work, since Talouselämä's circulation has grown by about thirty percent since 2000. Financially, too, the paper has been highly successful. "We haven't really noticed any crisis, thing just get better all the time."

MEDIUM VERSUS MEDIUM

Last autumn, the media woke up: something big was happening. And once again, everyone was thinking the same thing at the same time - and getting onto the Internet. Seppänen thinks one reason for this mass hysteria was the spread of Facebook and other community services. No, he himself doesn't surf Facebook. "I already know who my friends are and how they are doing." In terms of business and revenue logic, the important thing is coming up with ways to make money from the Internet.

"THE INTERNET IS AN ADDED ASSET. WE SHOULD BE GLAD ABOUT THIS AND USE IT TO IMPROVE PEOPLE'S LIVES."

Seppänen points out that adverts already bring in the bulk of newspaper income, and with free papers all of it. Internet revenue logic is not significantly different. He wonders why anything new is seen as a threat to be feared, rather than a source of pleasure. "The Internet is an added asset. We should be glad about this and use it to improve people's lives. Anyone who succeeds in this is sure to make money, too."

To Seppänen the Internet is no different from the other media. Television did not kill off the radio, even though people were afraid this might happen. And television did not kill off the magazine, either. Seppänen has research data on this, too. In the mid-1980s, he wrote his master's thesis in the Department of Communication at the University of Helsinki, right at the time when people were predicting the death of magazines. The conclusion of his thesis was that magazine publishers have no need to worry about television.

"Nor is there cause to worry now. New media do not kill off old ones, but complement them, or even shore them up," he says. "Nor did people stop playing ice hockey when indoor bandy was invented. A lot of people are happy to play both. Me, for example," he quips.

THE EDITORIAL TEAM KNOWS ITS READERS

In some editorial offices print journalists and Internet journalists work separately, which Seppänen thinks is a tragedy. At Talouselämä journalists produce pieces for both channels. He is enthusiastic about the benefits of this arrangement. News comments on the Internet attract dozens of times the feedback that pieces in the printed press do. "The editorial team now has a far better understanding of its readers' lives. The feedback generates new contacts and feature ideas." At the same time, he admits that the Internet work has increased the pace and tempo of editorial work.

Seppänen sums up by saying that, for Talouselämä and Talentum, it does not matter what channel is used to serve readers. The most important thing is to use the channel that readers feels is closest to hand. "Readers want a printed paper. We don't fell trees out of malice."

Financial journalists have traditionally had close contacts with corporate top management. At Talouselämä magazine we consciously try to broaden that perspective towards ordinary people and working life. Seppänen sees one reason for the global decline in financial papers as being that the papers have been made as though they were read by corporations.

Financial journalism, too, has to be made for people. He thinks bodies outside the media use press releases and press conferences to exert excessive influence over the media's choice of news stories. The story angle can then easily be built up from the outside, too. "A story that is relevant to the reader takes more effort. We always have to remember that the editorial team works for the reader, not for the subject of the story," the Editor-in-Chief says.

How are our Business magazines coping with the international competition? Seppänen, whose job involves keeping an eye on a lot of papers in the field, thinks foreign papers maintain their credibility until the story is about a topic that we are familiar with. "Finnish journalists cope with the competition well. In Finland papers are made by small editorial teams, and yet the end result can withstand comparison brilliantly."

AUTHOR-ORIENTED JOURNALISM

Talouselämä Oy, now Talentum Oyj, was founded 70 years ago. The chairman at the founding meeting was Director of the Bank of Finland and statesman Risto Ryti, and the fi rst chairman of the board was the and statesman J.K. Paasikivi. The paper had the patriotic mission of turning this backward agricultural country into an internationally successful industrial nation. The paper still operates along the same lines, although the means have changed. Now, instead of direction and control, the aim is to get people to use their own brains.

"We want to promote fair competition, both between individuals, companies and societies and between points of view. We don't, for example, take a line on whether Finland should join Nato or not. Instead, we present various viewpoints that readers can use to form their own judgements. If situations change, then our conclusions can change, too," Seppänen sets out the policy. Now, it seems to be the fashion to hire celebrities as columnists. The Editor- in-Chief is not keen on this trend. "Opinions have no journalistic value, only a well-reasoned viewpoint does."

Seppänen has worked at Talouselämä for twenty years, over seven of them as Editor-in-Chief. In addition to being responsible for Talentum's papers as publishing director, he is also a member of Finland's and the whole group's management groups. But that is not enough for him: each week, he writes a column for Talouselämä that generally sparks discussion.

He has a knack for finding fresh, lively viewpoints on a topical issue. He and Pertti Hämäläinen also create paper's Pomo & Väisänen (the boss & Väisänen) cartoon. Seppänen has been making comic strips and cartoons for thirty years now. Reading is important, too. Swimming is the absolute number one among his sporting hobbies.

But music is the closest to his heart: he has composed, played different instruments in various different ensembles, and sung with the YL Male Voice Choir. Now, he is chair of the board of the art-music specialist record company Ondine. In his own words, he does anything enjoyable that he can, when it suits himself and his family. Surprisingly, golf is not one of his hobbies. "I have four children," Pekka Seppänen explains.