Govt to bail out ailing national news agency

The government announced on Tuesday the decision to allocate 1.5 million euros to the privately owned Finnish national news agency, STT.

Anne Berner, the minister for communications and transport, said in a press release that the one-time assistance will be proposed as part of a supplementary budget to be submitted to the parliament this week.

Mika Petterson, editor in chief of STT, said the government funding balances the economy of the agency for this year. "Without this assistance, the possibility of closing down the news service could have been considered."

STT is owned by leading Finnish newspaper houses. Sanoma has one third shares.

The agency has been losing customers in recent years as media houses have relied more on their own production. The national broadcaster Yle ceased being a client 10 years ago, but returned last year.

The decision to bail out STT follows a comparable assistance to Finnish commercial television, MTV last year.

The government gave the Swedish owned MTV 3 million euros to ensure continued quality news service. The decision was justified by the need of having two national television news services, not only Yle.

Berner said on Tuesday that STT must prepare a plan on how to stabilize its economy. It should also consider development of robotics and AI, "for the wider development of the media scene", the minister said in a press release.

Tapio Sadeoja, chairman of STT, considered it possible that this one-time aid would later become permanent. He said it could be justified on the basis of the special position of STT in Finnish society.

"Survival of STT is extremely important. We only have to find a solution how it is done in a sensible way," said Sadeoja.

Sadeoja is the editor in chief of Ilta-Sanomat, one of the papers published by Sanoma Group.