Helsingin Sanomat

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Template:Infobox Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat is the biggest subscription newspaper in Finland and Scandinavia. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. In the year 2003, its daily circulation was 429 244 on week days and 500 269 on Sundays. In 2004, the week day circulation was 434 472. Its name derives from that of the Finnish capital, Helsinki, where it is published (literally translated, the name means "Messages of Helsinki". A better translation would be "The Helsinki Times").

In Finland, the paper's name is often abbreviated HS. Colloquially, it is also often called Hesari.

1 History
2 Format and Style
3 Market and Society Position
4 See also
5 External links

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History

The paper was founded in 1889 as Päivälehti, when Finland was a Grand Duchy under the Czar of Russia. Political censorship by the Russian authorities, prompted by the paper's strong advocacy of greater Finnish freedoms and even outright independence, forced Päivälehti to often temporarily suspend publication, and finally to close permanently in 1904. Its proprietors re-opened the paper under its current name in 1905.

Oringinally founded as the organ or the Young Finnish Party, the paper has been politically independent and non-aligned since the 1930s.

Helsingin Sanomat has a long history as a family business, owned by the Erkko family. It is currently the flagship of the SanomaWSOY media group.

The relationship between Helsingin Sanomat and Finland's government has often been close. For instance, during the run-up to the Winter War, Eljas Erkko was at the same time the paper's publisher and Finland's foreign minister.

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Format and Style

The paper is published in Finnish language in broadsheet format and aims at a serious, high standard on research and language. Unusually for a serious, high-circulation newspaper, the front page of Helsingin Sanomat (below the title) has nearly always been used solely for advertising -- with very few exceptions, the most recent ones being the editions of 2000-01-01 and 2001-09-12.

The paper also publishes a monthly supplement named Kuukausiliite (Finnish for "Monthly Supplement"), and a weekly entertainment-oriented supplement named Nyt ("Now"). There are also both Finnish and English-language Internet editions.

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Market and Society Position

Helsingin Sanomat has a penetration of approximately 75% of the households of the Greater Helsinki region, and also functions as the local paper of the region. Its total daily circulation is well over 400,000, or about 8% of Finland's total population, making it the biggest daily subscription newspaper in the Nordic countries.

The paper is a significant factor in Finnish society. Pertti Klemola calls it a state authority, an institution with its own independent social and political will (Pertti Klemola, Helsingin Sanomat, sananvapauden monopoli, Otava 1981, p. 13).

The newspaper strongly advocated Finland joining the European Union in the run-up to the decision to do so in 1994. It is currently supporting, if not quite so strongly, Finland joining NATO. During the past two years the paper has presented a strong mainstream anti-Iraq war campaign in its editorials. Its articles on the war in Iraq have been written by correspondents known to oppose the war.

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