E-PAPER Revolutionise Media? HTML5 • KEYWORDING • Newsml • AUTOMATION • 3D • DATA JOURNALISM Cutting Edge Digital Publishing Solutions Paper

THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE FINNISH NEXT MEDIA PROGRAMME 2010–2014 NEXT MEDIA

RENEWING MEDIA MEDIA magazine SMALL SCREEN DIGITAL AESTHETICS HBL MORNING THE BEST - A FRONTRUNNER DELIVERY MEDIA EXPERIENCE IN DEVELOPING SAY GOODBYE TO FOR TABLETS DIGITAL CONCEPTS MAILING COSTS

USER RESEARCH The daily rhythm of a digital consumer

TECHNOLOGY BIG DATA serving media

FUTURE Nordic Next Media Next Media internationalises

A FINNISH START-UP ATTEMPTS TO MAKE A BREAKTHROUGH Will E-PAPER revolutionise media? HTML5 • KEYWORDING • NewsML • AUTOMATION • 3D • DATA JOURNALISM Cutting edge digital publishing solutions Paper

THEME When the Next Media programme began in 18 2010, digital publishing activities were still in their infancy. Over the past four years, the Finnish media industry has evolved into a NEXT MEDIA multichannel business utilising digital terminal devices – both on a national level and locally. THERENEWS MEDIA INDUSTRY LOCAL MEDIA BECOMES E-BOOKS BECOME AVAILABLE 24 A LOCAL ONLINE COMMUNITY 28 FOR LIBRARY LENDING Local media is networking with readers A unique licensing model accepted by all and advertisers. players on the value chain.

COMMON IDENTIFICATION AND HBL ACCELERATES INTO THE DIGITAL ERA 26 PAYMENT FOR THE MEDIA INDUSTRY? 31 KSF Media, which publishes HBL, The media ecosystem creates a counter- has been a pioneer in development weight against global application stores.

TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS MEDIA EXPERIENCE

WILL E-PAPER THE HUITTISTEN LOOKING FOR THE BEST 14 REVOLUTIONISE MEDIA? 41 SANOMALEHTI CONCERN 48 MEDIA EXPERIENCE The development of e-paper has been KNOWS THE LOCAL MARKET Extensive experience has helped layout a subject of interest for many years. The position of local media as it com- professionals create solutions that pro- Now, the technology seems to be ready. petes with advertising space offered by duce a good media experience in print global services is a challenging one. This publications. Digital terminals, tablets BIG DATA – THE BUZZ- Huittinen-based company has relied in particular, are still so new that there 60 WORD IN MEDIA TOO on systematic development work to hasn't been time to accumulate the increase its digital business. Next Media has adapted Big Data necessary competence. methods to media needs. Now it's time to make use of them. THE DAILY RHYTHM OF ADVANCED 43 A DIGITAL CONSUMER 53 TABLET HEURISTICS AUTOMATIC LAYOUT There is no such thing as a typical In the Next Media programme, re- 66Automatic and responsive digital media user or media day. Diverse searchers at Aalto University's School of layout requires proper publication studies provide new information about Arts, Design and Architecture developed structure analysis and under- daily routines. Åbo Akademi University a method to improve the usability and standing of image content. surveyed media consumption routines. visuality of new digital publications.

4 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 INTERNATIONALISATION

NEXT MEDIA 36 INTERNATIONALISES Cooperaton in Nordic Next Media is being planned with Nordic partners.

GOING GLOBAL WITH 38 NEXT MEDIA Many Next Media SMEs have started their internationalisation process in programme projects.

BUSINESS

MORNING DELIVERY WITH 47 DIGITAL TERMINAL DEVICES Printing and postage costs are already a barrier to early morning delivery in rural areas. TESTING NEW 14 56 MEDIA CONCEPTS Publishers looked for new content 74 AR applications in a local portal concepts for digital terminal devices JOURNALISM by prototyping in Next Media. 74 HTML5 – responsivity for services

COMBINING DATAJOURNALISM GOES 71 MEDIA CURRENCIES 64 MAINSTREAM OTHERS There are more and more media channels Database format data in articles gets 7 Editorial – Eskoensio Pipatti available. How do they relate to one an- a completely new meaning when 6 Who's who at Next Media other and what is the most effective way information is combined from large 79 A brief history of Next Media to invest an advertising budget? information masses.

EDITORIAL TEAMS TECHNOLOGY 59 NETWORK WITH READERS VIEWPOINTS Allowing readers to participate in 9 Media's new challenges EXTENSIONS TO THE content production will change editorial Petteri Putkiranta processes. 63 NewsML STANDARD 11 Professionals in captivation STT-Lehtikuva and Anygraaf developed Minna Nissinen a standard for exchanging planning data. IN BRIEF 13 Making development the focus Helene Juhola PORTABLE PROFILE AND 72 Automatic monitoring of media use 35 Next Media in 68 RECOMMENDATION Digile's portfolio Optimal 3D-parameters VTT's portable proﬁle is the result 73 Pauli Kuosmanen of long-term development. 73 We test Google Glass 75 The straits of Messina 73 Onix describes books are behind us! Nils Enlund

Next Media results are available at www.nextmedia.ﬁ The four-year Next Media programme produced a huge Research results The list begins with deliverables from each of the four amount of material: several hundred deliverables from years. more than 60 projects. Only a fraction of these can be Result bulletins (in Finnish) Result bulletins are compiled from the yearly presented in this magazine. results. They serve as introductions to the topics and have direct links to the More detailed information about the results is available on relevant deliverables. the Next Media website. Results seminars The last entries on the page include links to presentations The deliverables are mainly written in English. You can from the result seminars held in different years. Some of the presentations also select English as the website interface language. include a video. Slides in English, spoken in Finnish. The results can be found under the Publications tab.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 5 PEOPLE

WHO'S WHO AT NEXT MEDIA

DIGILE Oy Reijo Paajanen, Chief Executive Ofﬁcer, Pauli Kuosmanen, Chief Technology Ofﬁcer

Next Media Steering Group

Pauli Kuosmanen, Digile Oy, chairman, Eskoensio Pipatti, Focus Area Director, Marko Turpeinen, EIT ICT Labs, Mari Isbom, Tekes, Masa Peura, Sanoma Media Finland, Minna Nissinen, Alma Diverso, Vesa Vainio, Tieto, Janne Saarela, Proﬁum, Jussi Paakkari, VTT, Ari Heinonen, University of Tampere, Virpi Tuunainen, Aalto University, Marja-Leena Tuomola, Sanoma Digital Finland (2010–2011), Fernando Herrera (2011–2012), Pentti Unkuri, Tieto (2010), Minna Pellikka, Tieto (2011)

Next Media Leadership Team

Eskoensio Pipatti Olli Kuusisto Marko Turpeinen Nils Enlund Pirkko Oittinen Helene Juhola Anu Seisto Focus Area Director Project Manager Academic Academic Media Technology, WP1, Federation of the WP 1 Sanoma Media Finland WP 2 • VTT Coordinator Coordinator Aalto University Finnish Media Industry VTT

Kristiina Markkula Santtu Parkkonen Caj Södergård Anu Kankainen Timo Saari Ismo Laukkanen WP 2 • Federation WP 3 WP 3 WP 2, 2010–2011 WP 2, 2012 WP 1, 2010–2012 of the Finnish Media Sanoma Media VTT Helsinki Institute for Helsinki Institute for AAC Global Industry Finland Information Technology Information Technology

PUBLISHER: Digile Oy The editorial team of Next Media Magazine Vaisalantie 6, 02130 Espoo, Finland PRINTED AT: Hansaprint Oy, Vantaa

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2014

LAYOUT: Harri Heikkilä, Marja Tikka Editor-in-chief Managing editor Editor Photo editor AD Eskoensio Pipatti Olli Kuusisto Katri Grenman Janne Laine Harri Heikkilä ISBN 978-952-93-4030-9 (nid.) ISBN 978-952-93-4031-6 (HTML5)

Nearly all of the people who work with Media, the sharing of information in Next Media have taken part in produc- seminars, the unique cooperation and ing this magazine, not only the ones sense of community – oll of which al- whose names are listed as writers. I lows Next Media to move to the inter- would like to express my thanks for the national level. Thank you everyone! beneﬁcial results achieved during Next –Eskoensio Pipatti

6 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 EDITORIAL

Turning Next Media into an international brand as it entered the 2010s, the media industry faced the greatest challenges of its history. Next Media has been a very well-timed development programme, and has done pioneering work towards creating extensive pre-competitive research cooperation in the media industry. Tis has been appraised and others around the world want to follow Finland's example. Other Nordic countries would like to join Next Media, and presentations on its operating model and results have been requested at several media industry conferences. Te driver company in the Next Media programme has been Sanoma, Finland's largest media company. Sanoma's Finnish operations have also been an important partner in development projects. Te Federation of the Finnish Media Industry, Finnmedia deserves the greatest credit for the work leading up to Next Media, the creation of the future strategy for the media Eskoensio Pipatti and creating cooperation between companies. Finnmedia has also run the programme's Focus Area Director, most important project entities. Next Media Tis magazine gives you the opportunity to read about the results of Next Media in the words of the people who made them happen. All the work done in Next Media would not ft even into a thick book, to say nothing of a few articles. We've had to leave out some of the results, but browsing through the result documents on the website will give you a broader picture of all Next Media outcomes.

the next media programme is a response to to the rather profound transformation that the media industry is currently undergoing. Publications are becoming services, the media experience in small digital terminals has to be rebuilt, and the customer relationship with the subscriber has to be restructured in digital distribution. Together with technology companies, Next Media has developed methods and technologies that help in this transformation and lay the foundation for creating new kinds of digital services in the future. Next Media has developed collaboration that can be considered remarkable even on an international scale. Tis cannot be found anywhere else. A foundation for expanding this cooperation internationally has been built at the same time. A continuation of Next Media has been planned in the form of Nordic cooperation in Nordic Next Media, where Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark will participate in joint development. In the future, the Nordic projects will function as basis for projects in the EU's Hori- zon 2020 programme. Work with the World Association of Newspapers and Newspaper Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is aimed at ensuring the position of media in this new European Eskoensio Pipatti has a master research framework project. of science degree in digital technology. He has spent the majority of his career work- on a european level, horizon 2020 has the same targets as Next Media and other ing as an editor-in-chief of Digile programmes: to refne scientifc breakthroughs into innovative products and ser- computer magazines and vices and business opportunities. as a digital media services developer at Sanoma. He has Te assembling of Finnish media industry players into research projects that is taking been running the Next Media place within the framework of Next Media provides a solid foundation, and even a cut- research programme for the ting edge, in Nordic and European cooperation. past four years.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 7 THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE

8 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 VIEWPOINT

Media's new challenges

sanoma has held the lead company role in Next Media during its four years of operation. Next Media has succeeded in creating an atmosphere of joint development and a level of pre-competitive cooperation in Finland's media industry. Te objective was to improve the operating conditions in the sector by gathering experiences, best practices and existing solutions and then sharing them among all parties involved in the programme. For my part, this was realised in the form of the eReading project, which I had the pleasure to participate in from autumn 2009 onwards.

the development of transformational technologies was an important element, providing opportunities to move traditional business models to digital terminal devices. Petteri Putkiranta, Business Director, Sanoma is a pioneer in Finland in this area, both technically and business-wise. Te frst Sanoma Media Finland Oy prototype was already in test use on the newly released iPad platform during the preliminary phase of the eReading project in spring 2010. When these devices became generally available at Christmas 2010, the frst commercial iteration of the service was ready. Tis project marked the beginning of Helsingin Sanomat's tablet solution. Since then tablets have been an important part of Helsingin Sanomat's business model. However, simply transferring business to the digital era is not enough. Understanding the consumer's daily routine and adapting digital services to that routine will require new concepts and target group thinking. Te digital era gives consumers signifcantly more possibilities than earlier - if HS's news isn't satisfactory, social media provides a 'news- feed' that keeps the consumer up to date on at least some issues.

media companies of any signifcance also work with start-up companies, either directly (M&A activity) or, for example, by means of joint activities with local incubators. Many media companies also support the development of 'internal start-ups' through various project competitions, etc. Next Media has also given companies that are starting up the chance to become familiar with the industry and its actors. Te media business is is restricted in terms of language and culture. As a result, the media business is locally and globally fragmented into market areas. Tis is also the main Petteri Putkiranta has a reason why collaboration can have a major impact on renewal in the media industry. master of science degree Tat same language and cultural restriction could lead to the conclusion that media in telecommunications technology and worked for markets are national by nature. However, this is not likely the case – also the news media nearly 20 years in market- industry is subject to global competition. Companies compete with global players for the ing positions for Nokia's network and mobile phone consumer's time and for advertising money. functions. He has handled business management after next media, media industry and technology companies in Finland will need spar- tasks at Helsingin Sanomat since joining the company ring partners from both the Nordic countries and mainland Europe. We are not able to in 2008. move forward fast enough on our own.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 9 THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE

10 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 VIEWPOINT

Professionals at captivating

when did you last experience that tingling feeling of being utterly captivated? Do you remember when you were last fascinated by the smoothness of the service, thrilled with usability, interested in a diferent perspective on a familiar topic, enchanted by visual fun, treated to magical moments while immersing yourself in the unexpected twists and turns of a story, enthralled by a surprising combination of information, intoxicated by tips you received to make everyday life easier, captivated by a video, mesmerised by a home advertisement, date profle, recipe or travel tip, wanted something new that you just saw with the intensity feeling characteristic of youth, felt like a VIP because of something that takes your personal user needs into account? If you fall into this category, hopefully the

Minna Nissinen source of that feeling was a Finnish online service provider. Senior Vice President, Te aim of the Next Media research programme (2010–2014) was to create innova- Alma Diverso tions in terms of media experience, new business models, concepts and technologies. Tese four years of research have included countless projects, tests and pilots: praise- worthy cooperation with media companies, research institutions, the academy and technology organisations that create opportunities for media. In a manner typical to applied research, the approach centred on creating new opportunities rather than directly com- mercialising them. We have focused on technologies, platforms, processes, automation and tools. Captivating the customers is up to the media.

the latest digital barometer 2014 study (Digile, Federation of Finnish Technology Industries, Internet Industry Finland) ranks Finland as number one in terms of prerequisites for digitalisation in a comparison of 22 countries. However, even with our unpar- alleled prerequisites,we are only on an average level in terms of actually utilising digital solutions. Te Digital Leaders in Finland 2013 (Magenta Advisory) study reached the same conclusions. Our consumers and infra are world-class but our range of services is not. Tis is something we need to seriously consider. Finland is a country of engineers, self-service and efciency. Tese qualities leave us standing on the sidelines like a wallfower at the digital dance. Even if someone asked us to dance,we would step on their toes and that would be the last dance. Te Swedes, M.Sc. (Econ.) Minna Nissinen Danes, Americans and others are grabbing all the partners. runs Alma Media's Digital Service and Development Unit Alma Diverso. She has we have outstanding skills, experts and technology – and even the will – to produce had a front row seat on digitalisation of the media top level digital services. However, now we have to put all our energy into considering industry for 12 years, still how to captivate users and testing: visuality, usability, being current, personalisation, etc. enjoys a print newspaper and cup of coffee in the and, of course, the element of surprise. Even the most captivating service needs world- morning and is captivated class marketing to succeed – it's impossible to captivate if nobody can fnd the service! by the opportunities presented by digitalisation on a Fortunately, there are top marketing experts in the various media, aren't there? Afer all, daily basis. the entire business is based on functional advertising and marketing solutions.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 11 THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE

MEDIA EXPERTISE FROM METROPOLIA

Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences is an international educator and innovator in the ﬁ eld of information and media technology. Metropolia graduates in the ﬁ eld of information and media technology are skilled ICT and media professionals, who develop the information society and the business sector in a global environment.

Our main areas of expertise are:

Media applications and visual

Media communications, that combine visual applications Mobile Digital design, journalistic know-how, design and and visual applications communications communications production of online services, mobile and network technologies, as well as a graphical Graphic technique. Core competencies are radio Radio design and television production, digital communica- & TV THE SPHERE OF tions, media technology, mobile applications, graphic design and graphic technology. MEDIA Media-

technology Audiovisual media and games, with Presentation a focus on the moving image and sound, technology 3D-graphics, game industry, audio-visual Game Film applications media technologies as well as theater production 3D-animation lighting, sound and audio-visual technology. and Audiovisual visualization Core competencies are ﬁ lm production, media and games 3D-animation and visualization, game applications, and presentation technology.

Our diverse teaching and learning activities are supported by research, development and innovation (RDI) activities which we are doing in collaboration with stakeholders and companies through a variety of projects and assignments.

The strengths of Metropolia in RDI are diversity, high level of expertise in different ﬁ elds and practical approach to the development and improvement of products, equipment, operations, processes, and services. We apply the latest technological innovations and research results to the projects.

Interested in Metropolia as a partner in media projects? Contact us at: Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Coordinator in RDI Anna-Maria Vilkuna , fi rstname.lastname @ metropolia.fi tel +358 40 334 7929 www.metropolia.fi /en

12 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014

media-expertise.indd 1 4.3.2014 11:44:37 VIEWPOINT

Making development the focus

next media is coming to a conclusion. Te frst publisher-run development programme was launched four years ago in what could in many ways be considered uncharted territory. When Next Media began, the industry still didn't fully understand the kind of upheaval that it would face during those four years. Tis change has been accelerated by the simultaneous development of mobile technology, economic recession, unfavourable taxation solutions, and cost pressure in distribution. In retrospect, it can be said that the development programme was perfectly timed.

people often forget that this was a company-driven programme. If someone thinks that results have not been obtained, they have to look in the mirror. Diverse networking and coop- Helene Juhola Director, R&D eration and a positive development atmosphere are the keys to achieving results and we believe Federation of the Finnish that we have been successful in this respect. Media Industry However, there still seems to be a lot of doubtful or even negative feelings in the industry, especially concerning long-term innovation work. Afer our struggle to get the Next Media programme accepted into what was then known as Tivit, where there was very little understanding of the media business and its challenges, there was signifcant pressure to produce a wealth of concrete results.

in my opinion, achieving results is always the objective, and I haven't met very many researchers who aren't aiming for results either. Te question is what are the targets and whether there is consensus concerning those targets. At times, this has been the subject of great debate. Tose who made a commitment and investment will eventually receive results that can be utilised directly. Te others will have to settle for indirect impacts. Of course, the importance of these results shouldn't be underestimated. For example, the new solutions developed by technology companies are already used by many companies in the sector regardless of whether they were involved in the programme or not. Running Next Media has been a very challenging assignment. Te industry doesn't have Helene Juhola has a master's degree in science in very strong traditions in project work and experimental development. A signifcant change graphic technology. She has taken place in this area during Next Media. spent most of her career working in media industry in finland, a new programme called digital first will be starting up, hopefully in late research at VTT, after which she came to Finnmedia as spring. Te name describes the stage of development that digitalisation has to achieve during Director of R&D. She is also the next four years. Te objectives of pioneer companies and technology players are rather chal- an agent with the Research Foundation for the Media lenging. Internationalisation is a strong element in the agenda. Industry in Finland. She has I believe that the sector has to learn to take risks and dare to put itself and its authority on the served as president of the International Association of line, even when the results may not be completely clear over a period of six months. It is impor- Research Organizations for tant to support and promote development activities in the sector and to communicate the re- the Information, Media and Graphic Arts Industries (IARI- sults efectively - all the way to the highest-ranking decision-makers in the country. Innovation GAI) and played a major activities should be under the direct protection of management. Otherwise, it will be impossi- role in the Next Media programme. ble for this or any other industry to deal properly with the change that is only just beginning.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 13 TECHNOLOGY

LIVEPAPER– trying to replace print newspapers at the breakfast table.

The Finnish start-up When Apple launched the iPad place paper, and would be acquired company Leia Media is four years ago, many publishers by the publisher and distributed to developing an e-ink display thought that their dream of elimin- subscribers as part of the subscrip- ating printing and distribution costs tion price. Te consumer has never that doesn't need charging had fnally come true. Touch screen felt like he/she paid for the paper ei- and ensures that your interfaces make the tablet an excel- ther – only for the content it delivers. newspaper is up-to-date lent publishing tool. However, the An e-paper terminal device is when you sit down at the past four years have proven that tab- at its best when delivering a single lets are not necessarily the fnal or publication. Te logo on the device breakfast table. Media only answer to publishers' wishes. and the continuously available con- companies around the Tere has not been enough willing- tent keep the publication visible at world are interested in ness to use a tablet purchased from all times, while tablets have to be piloting Leia's LivePaper a store or received as a tie-in deal for turned on and the desired content distribution. reading a newspaper. selected and opened by pressing one At the same time, the costs of print- of several icons. E-paper thus avoids Eskoensio Pipatti ing and distributing paper newspapers one of the challenges of the digital Next Media are continuously rising, especially per age, which is the 'out-of-sight, out- circulation copy, which combined of-mind' phenomenon. Te media industry has been follow- with falling income presents publish- E-paper can also serve as a plat- ing the development of e-paper for ers with a difcult equation to solve. form for more than one publication. more than a decade and Amazon's For example, there are already several Te temptation to use the terminal Kindle, for example, has been using large urban areas in the United States device for distributing several publi- black and white e-paper in its read- – such as New Orleans and Detroit – cations is quite high, but hasn't been ing devices for a long time. A tech- where a daily print newspaper is no tested so far. nology that seemed promising right longer published. from the start, e-ink has now devel- First tests in Vantaa and oped in terms of its colour proper- Not an alternative to a tablet Shanghai ties and is likely to ofer the oppor- Tis is not a consumer terminal de- Te e-paper terminal device was frst tunity to replace paper in newspaper vice that would be purchased from introduced at Next Media in 2009, distribution. a store. It's a distribution tool to re- when the programme was still in the

14 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 TECHNOLOGY

A new plastic-based structure in e-paper displays means that LivePaper will become even lighter and thinner this year. Currently, the terminal device displays are made of glass, like in tablets. planning stage. Metropolia's Jörgen Eriksson proposed a project called e-book, which was based on the use of e-paper. Te plans weren't ready at that time, so the project began the next year under the ePaper name with direct funding from Tekes. A low power consumption e-reader was tested for the frst time in Vantaa in autumn 2011, when 10 area of China in spring 2012. User Paper underwent signifcant techni- households had the chance to read research results concerning readi- cal development and received colour daily local news for one month on ness to read content on such a device to support content presentation. a black-and-white terminal device were promising and encouraged fur- In the Next Media project, made of e-paper. ther development. Anygraaf and Leia Media developed Te device which was automat- a system that makes it possible to ically updated and easy-to-use ePaper 2.0 import content laid out automati- received a positive reception in many In the second phase, the project cally to the device. Te solution has of the Vantaa test families. Te solu- moved back to Next Media as ePaper been tested at the start of this year tion was also tested in the Shanghai 2.0. Te terminal device called Live- with new prototypes in order to have the device ready for Helsingin Sano- Structure and operation of the LivePaper ter- mat's consumer testing in May. minal device Photo published in 3T magazine. The solution developed in the Sketch: Osmo Päivinen research project has without exception attracted great interest among users and media companies. As paper gradually takes a back seat during this decade, the big question is whether this new, paper-replac- ing way of distributing content can develop alongside tablets and smartphones. Te LivePaper solution comprises an e-reader optimised for reading news and a system developed around it that makes reading content as easy as possible. One of the models for the project is Amazon's Kindle e-reader, which has revo- lutionised sales and reading – particularly in the United States. One in threeAmericans over the age of 18 already has a Kindle or comparable e-reader. Advertising also plays a key role in the Next Media project. One key objective is to move a familiar experience from paper to the digital

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 15 THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE

Proﬁum tarjoaa ohjelmistotuotteita, joiden avulla sisältö ja mainokset löytävät kuluttajat, joille ne ovat tärkeitä.

SISÄLLÖNHALLINTA - SISÄLLÖN REITITYS - KONTEKSTUAALISET PALVELUT - TILANNEKUVA

www.proﬁum.com - Puh. 09 8559 8000 - info@proﬁum.com

16 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 TECHNOLOGY

world, and advertisements in a print utilised in this project. A technol- Usability is most newspaper have always been a cen- ogy pioneer group commented on tral part of the service. Tis has not the present and future properties important been the case in the digital world so of LivePaper on the project website. far. One of the key building blocks in Plenty of development the easy usability of the device is a lies ahead solar panel that ensures a sufcient Te LivePaper solution still requires Janne Kaijärvi power supply and was already part of a lot of development – afer all, this Chief Media the frst version. E-paper requires a is only a prototype. Leia hopes to Officer, Leia minimal amount of electricity – only have the frst commercial versions Media for data transfer and when updating ready in 2015. Tey may already a new page on the screen. be in use next autumn in the most The product is in the product develop- Leia Media, Anygraaf, Bluegiga critical locations, for example, areas ment stage, so we asked Leia Media's and DNA have optimised power where morning delivery cannot Janne Kaijärvi how the device is being consumption for both reading and otherwise be implemented. developed and how it's been received by data transfer, which means that a Te frst development target is the world. What is most important in terms of charging cell optimised for interior changing the glass layer on the sur- success for a product like this? lighting can provide sufcient power face to a fexible plastic substrate, ‘In an interview in Wired magazine last for several reading sessions each day. which will make the e-paper much September, one of Twitter's founders, Te device should operate for about thinner and lighter. Evan Williams, summed up the secret of two weeks on a full battery. A transparent membrane on the success in the digital era in a single word: device screen would be more suit- convenience.’ The HS pilot will begin in May able as the solar cell. Such mem- ‘ This is also Leia's objective: how to make reading a publication sufficiently Sanoma has cooperated with Leia branes have already been developed easy and pleasant.’ Profium tarjoaa ohjelmistotuotteita, Media and Anygraaf to develop an for mobile phones. Similarly, the ‘Right now, development work is fo- optimised method for presenting technology used for data transfer cused on making it as easy as possible joiden avulla sisältö ja mainokset content and automating the publish- can be developed – LivePaper cur- to read content on the LivePaper device. ing process in a comprehensive way. rently operates by means of a Blue- Among other things, this means contin- löytävät kuluttajat, joille ne ovat tärkeitä. Te research project will culmi- tooth connection to a mobile phone. uously improving contrast, navigation nate in a pilot beginning in May, in Publishers would also like to have and layout.’ How do you intend to develop LivePa- which 80 households will use a Live- a bigger device and page change per in the near future? Paper solution to read Helsingin with fnger swipe control. Te larger ‘ The next step involves developing a sig- Sanomat newspaper for one month. size would provide better possibil- nificantly thinner and lighter version of Te amount of content is much ities for layout design while fnger the device, which will also influence ease greater than in the first trial two swipe to control page changing has of reading.’ years ago, which has made it neces- become established practice among ‘Of course, the key is whether readers sary to extend the device properties all tablet users in recent years. will make LivePaper a part of their everyday routine. This is why we're working much further. In particular, power Te future will show whether e-pa- closely with publishers on the matter consumption when loading and per can develop in the desired way this year. Leia Media's terminal device reading the newspaper on a device and whether it will provide a genuine has attracted a lot of interest on almost without a charger is a key factor in option for content distribution. every continent.’ SISÄLLÖNHALLINTA - SISÄLLÖN REITITYS - dimensioning. Leia Media has been a global pio- What do major US and European media Information and experiences neer in this area while other players holdings think of your work? have also been collected from other concentrate on tablets and mobile ‘ All publishers, both in Europe and the KONTEKSTUAALISET PALVELUT - TILANNEKUVA United States, have been curious and in- sources during the project. Resarch phones. Te market for this type terested to see whether LivePaper can institute VTT has produced a report of terminal device is so huge that, solve some of their challenges.’ focusing on the experiences of users if successful, Leia has the chance to ‘ The peak of the tablet craze is already who read the New York Times with become the next 'Nokia' or 'Super- passing and, from the perspective of www.profium.com - Puh. 09 8559 8000 - info@profium.com a Kindle. VTT's Owela online cell'. newspaper publishers, the results haven't co-design environment is also being been as good as expected,’ .

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 17 THEME

Tablet publishing revolutionises business NEXT MEDIA RENEWS THE MEDIA INDUSTRY

The transformation of the media industry has presented huge challenges for development activities. Basic business operations have to be ensured for digital terminal devices at the same time as new avenues of business are developed. The greatest challenges involve turning an internet perceived as free into something that is paid for - optimising the user's media experience on a small display, and developing the entire production process for automatic digital distribution. 'Next Media Tablets didn't exist when Next Media was Samsung's Galaxy following soon afer. Te being planned in spring 2009. Tere was di- tablet was the frst digital terminal device has helped gital publishing, but it mainly comprised free for which paid digital content could be prepare for articles on websites and mobile phones. Next designed. Next Media took advantage of the the future Media was proactive and made the commer- new terminal device, and development work cialisation of media content on e-readers one began on digital versions of publications. All and create a of its main projects, even though the only forms of media have been included in this foundation for devices available at the time were Amazon's development: newspapers, magazines, books new business' Kindle and a few other black-and-white, and television. small-screen e-readers Te spring afer Next Media began, how- A sustainable platform for business ever, the media world was changed forever However, at the same time it was appar- - with Apple launching its iPad tablet, and ent that the operating model of application

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stores in which the buyer has a customer relationship with the application store rather than with the publication is not a sustainable business platform in the long run. So, as soon as it became possible, development work began on an HTML5-based system that works on all device platforms. Next Media's mission has been transformation - moving the business to new plat- ePaper Finland Oy forms. Tis is essential in the frst phase of has moved a signi- ﬁcant number of digitalising media companies. Te funders Finnish newspapers of Next Media set high targets for the pro- into the digital era. Its gramme: renewing the industry, increasing Lehtiluukku service now has more than 400 turnover, and internationalisation. publications available According to these parameters, Next for purchase and read- Media has been very successful: a lot of pub- ing on tablets. lications that can be read on digital tablets and on smart phones have been produced in NEXT MEDIA Finland, the industry has developed its payment logic and, as a result, its digital turnover. In addition, Next Media has given many technology companies a boost in terms of internationalisation.

An encouraging strategy process Although Next Media's funding from Tekes doesn't seem very large in terms of development costs in a media industry that operates in a billion-euro business, it has had a signifcant impact on results. Te sector strategy process implemented by the Federation of the Finnish Media Industry, Finnmedia, before Next Media was established, encouraged and focused industry vision on working together, which pro- Finland hard - with media companies suf- duced results that beneft the entire media fering a signifcant drop in advertising rev- sector in the form of sharing open informa- enue. Te past four years have shown that tion and experiences Next Media didn't start a moment too soon. Te feedback from all of Next Media's company partners has been the same: we learned The business model plays a key role a lot together, a lot of new media services and Internet consumers accustomed to free ser- mobile applications were produced, and the vice are increasingly willing to pay for con- skills needed to further develop operations tent. Services subject to a monthly fee, such are signifcantly better. as Spotify and Netfix, paved the road for Although in 2009 the drop in media com- this attitude. Te frst requirement for this panies turnover hadn't yet become reality in is the development of digital services with Finland, experience, especially in the United adequate quality: tablet applications, facsim- States, indicated that the same situation lay ile editions and mobile applications. Media ahead in Finland in one way or another. At consumers have to be able to follow their the same time, the industry has sufered from selected content on all the terminal devices the global economic downturn that also hit that they possess.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 19 THEME NEXT MEDIA RENEWS THE MEDIA INDUSTRY

Te second requirement is a limitation the daily newspaper or daily news stream in on the amount of free content, which is cur- attractive format on a computer, tablet or rently being implemented by means of vari- even a smartphone. ous paywall solutions that Finnish media Helsingin Sanomat's proftable strategy companies are putting into use. in digital publishing operations has attrac- Te best solution from the user perspect- ted global attention. Te Nieman Journal- ive has proven to be a so-called sof paywall. ism Lab at Harvard, which regularly probes 'Next Media Tis allows users to preview some content, media sector innovations, selected Helsingin has created while regular use requires payment. Social Sanomat as the frst of three European suc- an excellent media is an important tool for making con- cess stories in media business development. tent known, so a sof paywall allows content foundation for display via social media linking. Paywall or paygate? international- People are prepared to pay for good digi- Helsingin Sanomat has also been a trail- ising our prod- tal reader service. Many have decided to also blazer in terms of limiting free content, read the paper versions of publications, so which takes courage in many cases. ucts.' it was natural to combine the best of both HS considers a sof paywall to be the best worlds and build a product that lets the reader solution: casual browsers don't run into a decide which channel and which format to paywall, but anyone who reads more than use in diferent situations. fve articles per week is ofered the newspaper in one subscription form or another and reading of additional news is blocked. Tis keeps the gate slightly ajar. Te most important element in the basic business model of transformation is to allow readers to decide on a suitable combination and when the time is right to switch to only digital options. It will be interesting to see what role the e-paper terminal device developed by Leia Media will play in the distribution of digital content in the future. Helsingin Sanomat has been actively involved in the testing of this type of device.

Local newspaper becomes online community In contrast, the business model for local newspapers is developing in a diferent direction. Quick online communication means that news topics no longer come only from Next Media has Sanoma leads development the editorial team's sources - in fact, readers attracted global interest. Sanoma Media Finland's Helsingin Sanomat are actually more aware of local events than Presentations have been made at numerous newspaper has been a pioneer in the devel- the editorial team is. As a result, local media WAN-IFRA conferences opment of digital services and creating pay- is turning into more of a local online com- around the world. In this ment practices. HS has provided paid digital munity, where the media company serves as photo: KSF Media's Lotta services since 2008, before smartphones and a hub that combines information fows while Holm and Kai Ritala make a presentation at tablets began to rapidly become common the content is produced by the actual read- the World Publishing among consumers. ers, advertisers and public actors. Expo in Berlin. Helsingin Sanomat's solution was to For example, the capital region-based develop a possibility to follow the newspa- Metro newspaper's reader reporters already per on every popular terminal device based accounted for a huge amount of content pro- on the terms of each device. Users can follow duction in 2012. Te newspaper had more

20 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 THEME NEXT MEDIA RENEWS THE MEDIA INDUSTRY than 30,000 readers who also served as con- have been on the best seller lists of applica- tributors, submitting a total of over 35,000 tion stores in their categories. photos. Functional library lending is an essential Te Huittisten Sanomalehti Oy media part of the e-book market. Next Media has concern has developed its cooperation and done ground-breaking work relating to lib- services for advertisers and succeeded in rary lending of e-books. It has been among blocking the attempts of Google and other the frst to create an operating model that online services selling advertising space benefits publishers, authors, distributors ‘Next Media from taking over as the advertising channel and libraries. The distribution platform has changed for local companies. developed by Ellibs has been taken into use our company nationally and it can also be marketed inter- A boom in digital publishing activity nationally. strategy.’ When Next Media was launched in 2010, there were, in practice, no paid Finnish pub- Media experience as the mission lications, with the exception of scientifc lit- Te revolutionary power of tablets was hid- erature. Since then, publications have been den in the new method of terminal device developed at a record pace, with hundreds control, which actually originated in mo- of magazines and more than 60 newspapers bile phones. Te buttons and cursor arrows now available on tablets. used in phones had been annoyingly poor One important player in this transfor- in terms of web browsing. Using a fnger to mation of publications has been ePaper easily browse through a publication - just as Finland, which was established just before people were accustomed to doing - was the Next Media began. In the Next Media pro- launch pad for a new kind of digital publica- gramme, it has developed a digital publish- tion media experience. ing system and marketplace and produced Right from the start, Next Media's mission a signifcant share of the digital versions of has been to improve the digital experience in Finnish newspapers. Te company is now digital terminal devices. Te screen is small aiming for international success - with its for publishing activities, which makes it dif- most distant sales points being located in fcult to show the reader the ‘big picture’ and the United States. the abundance of content on ofer. Book publishers boosted by Next Media Another challenging task is visual naviga- have published more than 2,500 e-books. tion, which would help in content browsing Tis also includes international application and understanding the overall concept. implementations, such as Bonnier Books' A further challenge is interactivity, which Taro Maan Ytimessä children's book, which has to be embedded in the publications in a way that allows the user to immediately un- Results via experimental development The Next Media project has focused The spread of smartphones, tab- tice,technology based development on agile development, pilots, exper- lets and wireless internet represents and testing was the only way to pro- iments, and user testing with real a huge opportunity for publishers, as ceed, simply because there wasn't media users. All of the participating consumers have adopted them quickly. enough information available con- companies have been able to learn They allow consumers to follow the cerning the daily routines of today's from these experiments. news or use other services all day long, media consumer. The programme has also beneﬁted while reading a print newspaper or SMEs, for which the cooperation has book tends to take place in the morn- produced information about future ing or evening or in other leisure time. NEXT MEDIA industry needs and good ideas for of- New terminal devices offer up to fering digital products and services to eight hours of additional time to RENEWSTHE MEDIA INDUSTRY the media sector. reach consumers each day. In prac-

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 21 Language is one of the major success factors

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22 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 THEME NEXT MEDIA RENEWS THE MEDIA INDUSTRY derstand which element is interactive and Helsingin Sanomat renewed its iPad application in Feb- which is not. ruary, and tablet heuristics developed at Aalto ARTS was used in the process. As a result of this change, the news Tablet heuristics, an expert evaluation text is now laid out over three horizontal columns. method especially intended for publishing production, was developed to address these challenges. Next Media has used many different methods to study the media experience - from traditional self-evaluation, user panels and ethnography to psychophysiological methods. Psychophysiological methods have been used at Aalto University School of Business to test the media experience produced by alternative structure and layout models and implemented by media companies. Automatic content layout is a central part of the media experience - used to ensure that the layout responds as well as possible to diferent terminal devices and their positions.

Transformation technologies Next Media as an Content metadata in content management accelerator systems is an inherent part of automatic lay- Activity in digital out. Metadata tells layout about the order of service development articles, their importance and essential in- has risen to a signif- formation about the location and revision of cant level in Finland diferent elements. during Next Media. Furthermore, automatic layout has to Business related be able to ‘understand’ things like article to digital publish- images so that it can intelligently crop them ing has multiplied and place the headlines on top of less impor- in companies that tant areas of the image. participated in Next Next Media has done a lot of work to Media. develop the diferent phases of content man- It's dif f icult agement and the content metadata produced to assess all the by them. Readers, advertisers and the public results of industrial sector have been taken into account in con- research, because tent production, and standards recommen- the actual crop is dations created in order to facilitate the only harvested afer exchange of design information and content the projects, but this between organisations. unique cooperation Te projects involved compiling glossa- and sharing of information has also had ries and metadata structures for diferent other impacts on the companies' business. media types and writing open source sof- Te starting point for Next Media four ware. Tese are used to automatically create years ago was to raise the competence and metadata from text and images. Research- knowledge base in the media sector to a level ers have also developed algorithms for the that can be used as a springboard to reach automatic understanding of text, images and international markets. In this respect, Next videos using big data methods. Media has been highly successful.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 23 Readers and advertisers take part in making publications

Katri Grenman, VTT

A local newspaper develops into AN ONLINE COMMUNITY The accelerating speed of network access and close online communication between readers puts the newsroom in a new position: readers know more about local issues than the newsroom does. Helsingin Sanomat's Metro newspaper has handled this situation by inviting readers to create content. The newspaper already has more than 35,000 contributors each year.

Cooperation between readers and to reduce newsroom costs by about As such, reader participation in the press has been studied through- one-third at the local paper. newspaper-making is nothing new. out the entire four years of Next Readers have always sent mail and Media. Information and competence A new sense of community news tips to the newsroom, but the has been collected regarding readers' Te motivation for developing hy- technology – especially mobile tech- participation, motivation factors and perlocal services is the need to activ- nology and social media – make it how local entrepreneurs see the ben- ate and create team spirit in a local possible to develop a new way of cre- efts and drawbacks of reader partic- community. Tis also provides addi- ating a conversational link with the ipation. tional visibility for local actors, such audience and make news in partner- At the same time, research focused as advertisers. ship with them. on examining the type of technical Of course, media companies hope Readers have taken a bigger role in devices needed to enable readers and that relevant hyperlocal content will content production for local news- advertisers to participate as fully as help strengthen their position as an papers. Tis has also brought a lot possible in content production. Te advertising channel for local busi- of new and interesting elements to new operating method was found nesses. content.

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For example, 90 of the 100 most- formed around the newspaper. read articles in Metro in 2012 were Being able to ofer quality content initiated by a reader. Many of these and an active reader base helps a were stories that would never have local newspaper remain attractive as been produced by means of the tra- a platform for local advertisers. ditional newspaper making process. In 2013, readers sent about Keeping up with global services Santtu Parkkonen 30,000 photos and 2,000 stories and International general use services Producer, HS Development columns to Metro. like Google and Facebook have been Producer trying to get closer to local mar- A new kind of content kets and the companies operating Santtu Parkkonen: Local journalism has to go extremely in them for a long time. However, a Readers help deep, to the so-called hyperlocal community of active readers and ad- reinvent a newspaper level. In practice, this means get- vertisers keeps these services at bay. The Hyperlocal project involved ting out on the street and keeping One example of this is the coupon development work on the Sanoma both eyes and ears open all the time. campaign launched by Länsi-Suomi Kaupunkilehdet, which is now part Motivating readers to participate in newspaper. Länsi-Suomi, which has of Helsingin Sanomat in the form content production means that there 12,500 subscribers, published dis- of Metro newspaper. Cooperation are a lot of eyes available. count coupons in its paper. During with readers has been researched with Aalto ARTS and Tampere Uni- Finland's Metro newspaper con- the campaign, these coupons were versity of Technology. siders its strength to be having the used to purchase 7,000 pizzas, 5,000 ‘The involvement of research in- world's largest newsroom, since as steaks and 2,000 car washes. In con- stitutes and universities in the Hy- many as 35,000 people have taken trast, only 100 of the 1,200 coupons perlocal project has been very valu- part in producing the newspa- received during a Facebook coupon able. Working only with companies per. Working together is engag- campaign run by a local sports store would certainly have produced pi- ing. Despite the fact that the inter- were redeemed. lots and tests, but the overall picture of the reader community and net contains countless websites On the other hand, Huittisten related factors would undoubtedly where people can upload their own Sanoma newspaper's progressive have remained narrower,’ states photos and texts and share them online service – Palveleva Huittinen Santtu Parkkonen, who ran the Hy- with others, there is no guarantee of – succeeded in keeping local com- perlocal project. actually getting real visibility for that panies as advertisers – the compa- Parkkonen mentions so-called material. nies have only occasionally bought astonishment journalism as one In addition to content produced advertising from Google. A strong example of a new phenomenon that has sprung up at Metro mag- by readers, working together builds and active community provides vis- azine. that traditional 'us' spirit and com- ibility for messages from all the par- ‘A reader is astonished by some- mits readers to the community ticipants. thing that he/she observes in the city, snaps a quick photo and sends it to the newsroom. The newsroom then ﬁnds out what's happening in the photo and publishes it with a report. This is a good example of an article that would never be written without input from readers.’

Traditionally, information came from 'behind' the newsroom and the editorial team then ﬁltered out the most important events for readers. How- ever, in practice some reader always has better and faster knowledge of what's happening, and can communicate this information to others through online services. The newsroom has to reach out to the reader community in order to ﬁnd this type of interesting news, events or even feedback, such as on the condition of the roads.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 25 identification ecosystem COUNTERWEIGHT FOR application stores

Centralised application stores like Apple Store, Google Play and stores, local publishers and their Windows Store offer a good user experience and enable content products lose their special posi- purchase from more than one publisher in the same marketplace. tion because the customerships are transferred to the application store. However, they distance the consumer from the publisher, control At the same time, publishers are also customer data and take major revenue share. deprived of the chance to aquire detailed information about their Seppo Alatalo, Tieto Oyj HTML5-based applications and customers – information which is the media stores built around them invaluable in product development, The huge popularity of tablets are one possible alternative in the marketing, sales and customer ser- among users has led to a situation in future. vice. which a noticeable amount of pub- Customer understanding is a key lishers' and also Next Media's de- Customer relationships are a key part of the value that local media velopment investments are focused competitive factor use to keep their own advertising on tablet publishing applications. Application stores have succeeded in products competitive as targeted However, this has also contributed providing the user with a combina- advertising increasingly tightens its to strengthening the ecosystems of tion of easy authentication and pay- grip on marketing. application stores that have been es- ment, and a wide range of products. tablished by global companies. Tis has allowed them to stake out a Media Key Right from the start, Next Media strong position in the digital content Media Key is a concept developed has also developed HTML5-based market. by Next Media that combines iden- solutions for publisher needs. When acquiring content from tifcation and payment for diferent In theory, using an HTML5 applic- outside application stores, a con- publishers, while still enabling them ation means that only one applic- sumer has to register and be identi- to retain an exclusive relationship ation has to be built rather than fed separately using diferent IDs in with their customers. Te concept having to make a separate applica- each service. has been tested in 2013. tion for every application store. One Consumers eventually get tired Te consumer can use a single ID application that can be adapted to of the complicated online payment to purchase content from diferent all operating systems and terminal process associated with acquiring publishers. Purchasing takes place devices has long been only a dream content from anywhere other than in a smooth, consistent and joint in the mobile world. an application store. In application use manner once the consumer has

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Opportunities for saved their payment information lish a marketplace – a virtual new- media companies with Media Key in the same way as stand – around the products of pub- ‘For the media company, the pilot- with application stores. lishers who are part of Media Key. Of ing of Media Key included a lot of Media Key gives the consumer course, the products could also be positive elements,’ says Develop- better opportunities to manage their something other than digital publi- ment Manager Kari Hurtola from media consumption. It provides a cations. Alma Diverso. When used with view on personal media purchases Other opportunities could include services of strong and recognised and the chance to manage settings money transfers between con- brands, Media Key provides ease that are related to media consump- sumers, for example, in conjunction without endangering security. ‘In future solutions, consumers tion in a centralised way. Tese set- with marketplaces. In publishers’ will be offered more news that is tings determine what information campaigns, Media Key and its vir- produced faster and related ser- about the consumer is saved, dis- tual wallets could make it easier to vices in which the competition played and shared, whether they ofer 'content taste testing'. Media is international. When that hap- want recommendations and, if Key could also be used to buy phys- pens, delivery and consumption of so, what kind. Te importance of ical products as well, from both pub- different types of content inside having strict controls like this was lishers and partners. Tere are so a media company and between publishers will have to be easy and something potential users empha- many possibilities. offer a similar user experience in sized during the research phase of different services,’ envisions Hur- Based on consumer needs this project. tola. Te Media Key concept had its acid Ease of use will become even A opportunity for test in a pilot run by Alma Media. more important for consumers new kinds of services Te concept was positively received as the range of devices grows and At its simplest, Media Key can serve in user research related to the pilot. user situations change. The abundance of content will provide con- as the foundation for cooperation Te research confrmed that a gen- sumers with the opportunity for a between publishers - thus enabling uine need exists for a service like comprehensive and personalised – the formation of marketplaces be- Media Key, and that the models de- even comparative – news offering. tween several actors or for selected signed in the concept were func- Readers will be able to build their products. In a broader scope, Media tional. Users did, however, raise a own news bulletins or useful infor- Key could provide the chance to number of security concerns, which mation from the best and most inform afliate markets for content, would need to be resolved to secure teresting stories and services. ‘Competition will also activate where any one of us could estab- the necessary level of trust. ideation and make people stop to consider different viewpoints. Content will become more diverse PUBLISHER 1 and differentiated in order to bet- MEDIA KEY ter serve customer needs,’ states Hurtola. ‘Media Key is a good tool PUBLISHER 2 that transfers resources and focus to good implementation of the CONSUMER core task.’ PUBLISHER 3

Shared login Customerships owned by publishers Shared payments Low threshold for customerships All media purchases in a one view Easypayments Centralised personal settings Freedom to develop, sell and market

The Media Key developed in Next Media offers consumers a chance to use the same IDs and payment practices to purchase the desired content products as easily as in most application stores, regardless of the publisher. At the same time, it maintains the publishers' relationships with their respective custom- Kari Hurtola, Development Manager, ers and keeps them separate from one another. The method provides the same experience as Lehtipiste's Alma Diverso magazine shelves - the customer chooses their products and pays for them all at the same counter.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 27 the world's first comprehensive ecosystem E-books enter library circulation Finland is the ﬁrst Olli Nurmi, country in the world VTT, Digital Services to build an e-book lending ecosystem that covers the entire market and value chain. The parties involved reached agreement concerning licencing methods and distribution standards, and developed a method for using a web browser to borrow and read books that was approved by all publishers.

E-book lending and licencing meth- gle-user licence model and a model Many lenders want to use a separate reading application to read books, which ods were developed in Next Media for 20 simultaneous users. They means downloading the whole book to with a network of companies that correspond to lending of a physi- a terminal device. covered the entire value chain. Te cal book – there is either one book project created a model for ofering or 20 books on the shelf. A 100-loan During the testing period, nearly Finnish e-books to public library licence was also tested, but it wasn't 18,000 loans were made in the eBib customers throughout Finland. A a feasible solution from the perspec- library and 12,000 HelMet library user-friendly interface makes it easy tive of libraries. In some situation, customers signed up the service. for library customers to borrow the one hundred loans could be used Te most popular platform to read e-books on diferent terminals. up in a very short time. e-books on was a tablet device. Te HelMet (Helsinki Metropol- Users were able to choose between An e-library accelerates develop- itan Area) libraries in the capital two diferent borrowing methods. ment of the e-book market in Fin- region served as the pilot librar- Te most popular method proved to land. In terms of traditional and ies for the project, but the model be downloading the entire book to e-book sales, it is important to have has already been adopted by other the user's device, which was selec- smooth library lending activities. libraries and rolled-out throughout ted by 70% of users. For testing pur- The operating models developed the whole country. poses, Ellibs Oy also developed a also make the commercial e-book service that enabled reading on an distribution chain more efective and An easy-to-use e-library HTML5 browser, which was chosen also increase sales of e-books. Te outcome of development work by about 30% of customers. is an e-library that is easy to use for Te high level of customer interest Priming the eBib interface both borrowers and librarians. Two – together with a positive user expe- Aalto ARTS was involved in devel- alternative licencing models were rience - resulted in excellent feed- oping the interface for lending and developed during the project: a sin- back from users. reading, which is known as eBib.

28 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 THEME NEXT MEDIA RENEWS THE MEDIA INDUSTRY

Helsinki City ‘The library wouldn't have been able to test the impact of different license Afer evaluation, the online service's Library models for libraries and for other ac- new interface was supplemented by leads the pack tors who are part of the same chain various features - such as the ability on its own. It was also important to to change the font and diferent nav- One of the most important elements address misunderstandings, assump- igational options. Tese additions in multidisciplinary cooperation is tions and myths and to create new in- were also standardised. creating an open discussion culture formation among the participants.’ Te front page of the service was between the different partners. made more attractive by adding the ‘The good relations resulting from number of books it contains to make this project has made it easy to main- Olli Nurmi, tain contact between different players, it easier to fnd books available for VTT, Digital Services and new projects have also begun,’ ex- lending and browse the collection. plain e-Information Specialist Marja Afer testing, the maximum number Hjelt and Office Manager Virva Nou- of simultaneous e-book loans was siainen-Hiiri from Helsinki City Library. increased from one to fve and the The library doesn't just offer e-ma- maximum length of the loan period terials, it also advises people on how can be changed in the service. to use different services and provides According to research by Aalto customers with technical support re- ARTS and VTT, so-called social lated to service use. Library representa- reading is a extensive and actively tives who participated in Next Media's Peter Bagge, Development Manager, developing area. Along with tradi- e-book project also significantly devel- Otava Publishing Company Ltd oped their technical skills. tional conversation about a book, ‘Taking part in the development of social reading includes a large an e-library interface increased our From the publisher's number of networked functions knowledge of reading programmes perspective ranging from sharing to receiving and interface technology and the limi- shared information. tations that they set. We also gained a Making e-books part of the library col- lot of e-book format expertise. As a re- lection creates new opportunities for The system is being adopted sult of the project, the library's techni- the book market. It increases the visi- nationally cal support for customers is at an out- bility of books and authors and interest A permanent e-library service called standing level,’ says Hjelt. in buying books. Development Man- Ellibs e-library was built on the basis Virva Nousiainen-Hiiri highlights ager Peter Bagge from Otava Publish- of the eBib pilot and opened to lib- the development of a license model. ing Company Ltd was involved in the Developing and testing new license rary customers in the metropolitan library licence project. models was one of the central parts ‘The trial resulted in a functional region at the beginning of 2014. Lib- of the project. and clear model that satisfied all of rary implementation was frst tested the parties and provided the basis for outside the HelMet library system drawing up a proposal for a permanent in the Vaski libraries in the Turku e-book lending model,’ states Bagge. region. Te objective is to quickly ‘An e-book lending service provides progress to libraries throughout the e-books and authors with more visi- country. bility and readers' awareness and un- At the beginning of 2014, the derstanding of e-books also increases book collection in the HelMet e-li- significantly. This supports reading and brary comprised about 2,000 items. development of the e-book market.’ More new domestic literature will be ‘The trial convinced publishers of the functionality of new e-book lend- added to the collection during the ing and DRM technologies. The entire winter and spring. New books will book distribution process will benefit be acquired for the e-library as pub- from the development work done dur- lishers join the library system and ing the project,’ says Bagge as he sums more new literature is published in Marja Hjelt, e-Information Specialist, up the project results. the form of e-books. Helsinki City Library

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 29 THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE AGILE DEVELOPMENT HBL accelerates towards THE DIGITAL ERA

Open-minded experimental development and listening to readers play key roles on the road to the uncharted future. HBL is a pioneer in this area. During the four-year project HBL has learned a lot about readers, technology and its own strengths, thus allowing the newspaper to move steadily along the path to digitalisation.

Hufvudstadsbladet (HBL) entered the Next with new digital products. As Next Media Media programme with the intention of di- comes to a conclusion, HBL has tested and Lotta Holm, gitalising. Tis was sparked by rising distri- published three completely diferent digital KSF Media Ab bution costs as well as the media revolution news products. that has only accelerated during the project. In the early stages, the objective was to Distribution costs serve determine whether Finnish newspaper as a force for change readers were ready to use an electronic In 2009 HBL was considering the suitability reading platform to read their papers. Once of electronic reading devices for distribut- the traditional newspaper had been moved ing newspaper content in logistically chal- to a reading device the work continued lenging areas. Te costs and terms of dis-

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 31 THEME NEXT MEDIA RENEWS THE MEDIA INDUSTRY tribution were becoming a major paper. Although the test users didn't cation system metadata to the level challenge for business. As a result have any experience with an iPad required for automatic layout. Tech- of the Next Media programme, HBL and the digital edition available for nology did not present any barriers decided to start developing elec- it at the time, many of them said that to developing the actual application. tronic distribution in autumn 2009. they would prefer 'to read a copy of Te trial indicated that automated Te Åland Islands were a natural the printed newspaper' rather than layout that difers from a traditional choice for the initial trial - indeed in early 2010 changes in delivery ar- rangements meant that the company was forced to terminate its Sunday delivery in the region. At that time no one in the industry - in Finland or anywhere else - believed in the success of a digital edition on tablets. Tis is why the aim was to develop a completely new application with automatic layout. For business reasons HBL considered it important for the news application to contain the same content as the printed newspaper - right down to the advertisements. Since no one knew when the iPad would arrive in Finland the developers settled on a platform-independent application that would work on all tablets regardless of the operating system. HBL's platform-independent application, which was tested in the Åland Islands in March 2011. Twenty-fve Åland Island households from diferent demographic backgrounds were recruited for a new type of application. Indeed, newspaper might not be suitable for the test and the trials were held in readers preferred an application a news product. When highlight- March-April 2011. Te primary pur- showing the paper's printed edition ing content, one of the main means pose was to determine whether read- as a print replica - rather than an of communicating the importance ers who were accustomed to a print application specifcally designed for of news is visuality and variation. newspaper would switch to an elec- tablets. In order for a tablet application to tronic version. The secondary purpose of the replace a printed newspaper it has to Åland Islands pilot was to deter- be possible to change its layout. Positive results mine how the technology could be Afer these experiences the next Te test provided a clear and posit- adapted to creating a platform-in- step for HBL was to start publishlis- ive answer. Aalto ARTS, which was dependent publication with auto- ing its digital edition for iPad in July responsible for measuring the media matic layout in daily use. Although and for Android in September 2011. experience, discovered that readers web and reading device application felt that electronic distribution was technology was not very advanced in HBL+ acceptable and the overall reading 2010, the pilot proved that creating However, the digital edition didn't experience was just as good as read- such a version was possible. meet the needs of all readers. News ing a print newspaper. applications have to better utilise However, when collecting final Automatic layout is a challenge the various properties of the tablet feedback it became apparent that The biggest issue in terms of so HBL decided to start developping readers preferred the overview of the smooth application functionality an application designed specifcally day's news ofered by a printed news- involved bringing the paper's publi- for tablets: a weekly newspaper that

32 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 THEME NEXT MEDIA RENEWS THE MEDIA INDUSTRY would compile the main domes- During the early autumn, the pro- Breaking the rhythm of tic news from HBL and other KSF totype was refned in user tests with publication – HBL Kväll Media papers. Former subscribers the help of Aalto researchers. Afer Questions have been raised by the who had given up their newspaper positive feedback, a decision was fact that the electronic version of the but might still be interested in KSF made to turn HBL+ into a prod- newspaper is published the following Media's journalistic ofering were se- uct. Te frst issue was published in morning although news takes place lected as the target group. Te prod- November 2012. and are written during the previous uct was called HBL+.

HBL as a digital newspaper. The ﬁrst HBL+ prototype, November 2011.

With the help of Aalto University User tests are essential day. Afer HBL+, the development researchers, readers were included The biggest lesson learned from staf started examining the daily rou- in product development right from the HBL+ development project was tines to consider a solution for this the concept development phase, and fnding a way of doing agile develop- situation. potential readers were invited to test ment that utilised reader feedback in HBL decided to try one of the the prototype versions. several phases of the process. Since options available – an evening edi- Te feedback from the tests was there is no ready model, feedback tion of the newspaper. Newspaper used to revise the product's content from readers is especially benefcial reading has traditionally been a concept, layout and functionality when designing a completely new morning activity but news produc- and increase trust in the viability of type of media product. tion continues throughout the day the weekly product concept. Aalto's It's also important to understand Adding an evening edition commits researchers were also involved in that the organisation's own tech- the reader to a greater degree and developing usability factors in the nical competence is very valuable. keeps the news fresh. table applications. When resources are optimised and A preliminary background study In 2012, a functional prototype combined with an understanding of was performed in conjunction with was built with help from the sofware what is worth purchasing and what a readership survey, afer which con- company Conmio. An HTML5 appli- is worth learning to do, development cept design began together with the cation was selected as the implemen- projects can move ahead in the exact Palmu service design company. tation method, and HBL produced direction desired by the organisation Confdence that demand existed the publication system itself. and according to the schedule it sets. for an evening version of the paper increased and the prototype for a

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 33 THEME NEXT MEDIA IS RENEWING THE MEDIA INDUSTRY

The HBL+ weekly newspaper in December 2012 digital evening edition was built feedback was very positive and later during summer 2013. in December HBL decided to increase the product family with another new VTT's Owela helps out product called HBL Kväll. Te frst Te Owela (Open Web Lab) ser- issue of the evening edition was pub- vice developed by VTT was utilised lished in January. At the time of writ- for the project research. Owela was ing, publication of the evening edition HBL Kväll, front page of the live prototype, designed to support the diferent is in its third week and its readership 12/ 2013. phases of the innovation process. numbers have exceeded all expecta- Owela is an online co-design envir- tions. standing from outside the organisa- onment that in addition to a joint Te evening edition project pro- tion and aided in concept develop- discussion area contains other tools vided good lessons about the value ment and testing. such as surveys, votes and diaries. of one's own development work and Over a four-year period, HBL tested Te prototype was tested by invit- close collaboration with readers. Te and launched three completely dif- ing 55 users to discuss the product developers learned to take readers' ferent digital concepts. Each of these concept and prototype. Te visuality requests into consideration rather concepts was diferent and had its own and content of the evening edition than only listening to the opinions specifc target group. concept was revised on the basis of of pioneers in the sector. Under the The thread running through all feedback from the testers. KSF media guidance of readers, HBL's evening three concepts was gaining a better realised that the only acceptable pro- edition became a reading experience understanding of reader needs and of totype for this type of service was a where navigation takes place brows- the level of in-house competence - as 'live service', which actually includes ing horizontally in a newspaper-like well as how diferent partners should the latest news, in order to allow test manner. be utilised in the various phases of con- users to evaluate the position of the cept development. new service in their daily lives. A path of much learning For HBL it was important to have In December, the HBL newsroom Next Media has provided HBL with a central role in directing the tech- produced an evening edition of the the chance for better quality research nical solutions and the actual layout 'live' prototype on four consecutive work and learning a new concept de- and functional implementations. days. Te live prototype contained velopment model. Close cooperation A smallish media company doesn't real and current news and was pub- with other players in the sector and have the luxury of wasting resources lished at the intended time of an good collaboration with academic - they have to be used in a carefully evening edition - 4 pm. Test user bodies has resulted in greater under- considered and optimised manner.

34 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 VIEWPOINT

Next Media is part of Digile's portfolio

the starting point for the next media programme was interesting: a research programme of this size had never been implemented anywhere in the world in the media industry. Te programme's driver company was Finland's largest media company San- oma, and Sanoma's biggest competitors were also involved. Although doing research work with competitors was something new for the partners, it proved to be very fruitful.

in the first year's funding decision bulletin, digile's ceo Reijo Paajanen stated the following: ‘Te Next Media research programme aims at innovations that renew the value network and business models in the media industry[…]. Te target is for future media products to beneft from and support interactivity and ofer consumers completely Pauli Kuosmanen new media experiences.’ When this goal is refected on the division of themes at the re- CTO, Digile Oy sults seminar held in January 2013 (New content concepts, visuality and media experience; New advertising concepts, development of an eBook market; Media consumer research; Editorial processes and reader participation; Journalistic content tools in editorial systems from design to digital distribution; Technology: web app development, big data, AR), it's easy to see that the programme really did cover the entire media value chain.

i was delighted to read feedback from the partners concerning programme benefts. Te programme ’has helped us prepare for the future and create a foundation for new business, changed the company's strategy, provided a framework for developing unique global products’. ‘Te work done in Next Media will provide direct fnancial benefts.’ ‘When the programme started, there was nothing but a website – now we have 27 applications.’ Te steering methods for digile's research activities include international evaluation. Te Next Media evaluators considered the programme to be unique, even on a global scale, and were very satisfed with what they saw: ‘Te change is revolutionary in an industry known as conservative and flled with frictions of competitors – both real and

Pauli Kuosmanen is a Doctor imaginary.’ of Technology and also has an eMBA. After working as a next media's field of operation is not an easy one. Media consumers are demanding professor, he spent the main part of his business career customers, globalisation is an everyday issue, and social media altered the feld signif- with Elisa and Plenware in cantly during the programme, yet I believe that without the programme, the state of our technology management and product development media industry would now be a lot weaker. However, the change will continue, hopefully positions. He has been Digital First – the international extension of Next Media – will get a quick start. My main the technology ofﬁcer for DIGILE since it was founded criticism of the NM programme is the question of we didn't begin with this approach in 2008. four years ago?

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 35 INTERNATIONALISATION

Nordic Next Media and Horizon 2020

Digital Nordic First Next Media Next Media is going international. Two years of cooperation are being planned with Nordic partners in Nordic Next Media, with the aim of Europe-wide cooperation projects in the EU's eighth framework programme Horizon 2020.

Eskoensio Pipatti Horizon 2020 Next Media's goal has been a media transformation - moving the business to digital terminal devices. For the most part, this research work is complete and new, ambitious targets have to be set for the new period. In Nordic Next Media, we are lecting income fows, and operating going through a post-transformation models and processes for content Nordic Next Media period, which involves forgetting the creation will also develop. • Includes four Nordic countries: Finland, traditional operating methods and Te arrangement of funding for Sweden, Norway and Denmark limitations resulting from the print- Nordic Next Media has been quite • Finland's coordinator is the Federation of ing of publications and physical dis- time-consuming, as there is no clear the Finnish Media Industry, Finn media tribution. Tus, the attitude in the operating method for funding inter- • The country coordinator in the ﬁrst three programme is Digital First. nationalising SHOK programmes countries is a media organisation corre- (SHOK = Te Strategic Centers for sponding to Finnmedia, and a company The burden of tradition Science, Technology and Innova- called Visiolink in Denmark One of the goals of Digital First is to tion). • Finland's share consists of two parallel identify features of media services In this sense, Next Media will projects: a research group project and a that have adapted to the needs of serve as a guinea pig – as it has been corporate group project • The other Nordic countries have existing paper printing and distribution and in so many other ways. Tis experi- projects that are either already funded which can be completely made over ence will hopefully make it easier to or are applying for funding and will join in a digital world. organise funding of this type in the the Nordic Next Media cooperation Publishing schedules, the amount future. • Cooperation in Nordic Next Media is of content and specifcation of target deep – with research task-level collabo- groups are areas that will certainly Nordic Next Media projects ration – not just an exchange of general undergo changes. Te updating and Around ten mutually supportive re- information. enriching of content, ways of col- search directions have been found

36 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 INTERNATIONALISATION

for Nordic cooperation, and divided into four work packages. Te work packages refect the biggest change International trends of the digital era: Business from new terminal devices and cooperation channels, Big Data in media, New media concepts and the importance Cooperation with the Nor- of media in society. wegian New Media Network Te vast majority of the key play- began back in 2010 and at the ers from Next Media are also ready same time discussions were held with the global newspa- to join Nordic Next Media's Finn- per organisation WAN-IFRA ish consortium. Tis demonstrates concerning the upcoming EU satisfaction with the programme Horizon 2020 framework pro- results. Good achievements have gramme, which at that time also attracted new companies to the was still called FP8. programme. Horizon 2020. Finland's Nordic Next Media pro- In spring 2012, lobbying for the ject will apply for Tekes funding dir- Horizon regulation texts was ectly for two parallel projects: a cor- launched with ENPA, the Eu- porate group project and a research ropean Newspaper Publishers Director, R&D Helene Juhola from the Federation of the Finnish Media Industry Association. As a result of that group project. coordinates the Finnish part of Nordic lobbying, the media is bet- Next Media. Setting high targets ter represented in the decree Nordic Next Media has set ambitious texts. Inspired by Finland's example, the Norwegians' first funded project targets that are closer to business was called NxtMedia Trondheim. Stampen Group, which is one of the that would be possible in a SHOK largest media companies in Sweden, joined the NxtMedia projects. programme. Many technology SMEs Nordic cooperation. that grew as a result of Next Media The idea of closer Nordic research collaboration began to take shape in and the start-up Leia Media are aim- Next Media in spring 2013. This initiative was called Nordic Next Media ing to enter the international market as a result of the broad international attention received by Next Media. on the basis of products developed Norway's NxtMedia was ready to join, while in Sweden the newspaper in Next Media. organisation TU made a decision to begin preparations for participa- Media companies want to mul- tion. tiply their digital publishing oper- Later in 2013, the Nordic cooperation further expanded with the ations turnover – many are even addition of Denmark, where a company called Visiolink has been run- aiming for a 10-fold increase over ning a consortium of companies and research for several years that has the next four years. been studying the same topics as Next Media. A country coordinator was appointed for each country, a role which in Finland was assigned to the Federation of the Finnish Media Industry. A common plan In the autumn, Nordic Next Media's project structure and plans were refined and the first Nordic project plan was compiled in Finland. All of the other Nordic countries already have ongoing media research projects that are either funded or applying for funding and will join the Nordic cooperation with the Next Media consortium. In Finland, Digital First is scheduled to begin in May 2014 and continue for two years as Nordic cooperation. The path to Horizon 2020 is already being mapped out with regard to several projects.

Nordic Next Media consists of projects in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 37 INTERNATIONALISATION Going global with NEXT MEDIA

Next Media's technology partners have received a boost for their products and are internationalising according to their respective models. Leading the way is the start-up Leia Media, which has set its sights high. All of the companies are char- acterised by the fact that the products that they want to export were developed with the help of Next Media research and cooperation.

Olli Kuusisto, VTT

Anygraaf is an experienced export company Anygraaf's Neo tor begins to grow again after a slow of Next Media on international turno- media content de- period.’ ver, but we strongly believe that it will sign and manage- Next Media has played a decisive contribute to growth,’ explains Harri Eskoensio Pipatti has a masterment system has role in Anygraaf's acquisition of new Taskinen. of science degree in digital beneﬁted from de- competence for its products. The Anygraaf products can be found technology. He has spent the majorityHarri of Taskinen his career workvelopment- work company has been able to utilise this in 17 countries. Approximately 50% ing as an editor-in-chiefdone of in Next Media. knowledge, especially in market areas of turnover currently comes from computerIt has magazines enabled and testing of solution where there is an equivalent interface outside Finland. Anygraaf's target as a modelsdigital media that services came up in the project, and its results haven't been available. is to increase its market share as a developer.for example, He has been planning run- data, open data For example, the utilisation of plan- digital publishing channel expert in ning the Next Media research processing and digital publishing. ning data in newspaper structure Sweden and Norway. In the German programme for th past four years. ‘Anygraaf 's basic philosophy is to management is very advanced in Fin- and Dutch markets, the company ensure the continuation of product land. This approach still appears to be is looking for growth from existing development, even when the custom- quite uncommon in other Anygraaf customers, and it's taking careful ers are experiencing tough times,’ market areas. steps with a subsidiary in the United says Harri Taskinen from Anygraaf. The much-publicised LivePaper pro- States market. ‘This is the reason why Anygraaf is ject made use of Anygraaf methods still able to offer the best and up-to- that were developed in Next Media. date systems when an industrial sec- ‘It's still too early to assess the impact

38 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 THEMEINTERNATIONALISATION

Leia Media sets Tieto is already globally strong Tieto's initial focus Next Media's direct impact on its sights high areas in Next Media turnover is small at Tieto, but the Leia Media is a were mobile and aim in future years is to achieve tens Finnish start-up advertising solu- of millions in turnover from media that is develop- tions, with media area services and solutions. ing an e-paper content solutions Tieto is already an international Pekka Melander based terminal following later. company. In the media industry, Next Media has produced con- Tieto focuses on the Nordic coun- Janne Kaijärvi device to replace paper as a news- crete development ideas for product tries and it has operations in a total paper distribution tool. and service development. These in- of 20 countries, either through A research project that ran par- clude mobile and content manage- global customerships or products. allel to Next Media created the ment services and identification and 'During the next few years, our first prototype for a low power payment services. 'This is beneficial objective is to create services that consumption reading device. to our business in Finland and in- develop Nordic media competi- Newspaper distribution via the ternationally,’ explain Harri Maho, tiveness in relation to large, global test devices manufactured at Met- Vesa Vainio and Pekka Melander media players. We're also interested ropolia were tested in Finland and from Tieto. Some of the results have in broader internationalisation in China, while a small-scale test was already been implemented in man- the future,’ continues Maho. 'We performed on teaching materials ufacturing, but plenty of develop- see the Digital in Tanzania. After completion of ment still lies ahead. The domestic First project as the testing, a company called Leia markets are so small that it would a stepping stone Media was established in 2012. have been impossible to do the to EU-level joint 'The different projects gave us a same things alone. activities.’ good overall picture, and we could see the change on a large scale. Next Media's international visibility at, for example, WAN-IFRA conferences and exhibitions has Conmio focuses on the United States provided us with credibility,' says Conmio has been teractive in nature. 'This has allowed Janne Kaijärvi, Chief Media Officer strongly involved us to focus on developing elements at Leia Media, who ran Next Me- in media mobilisa- that are essential to media,' says dia's Hyperlocal work package be- tion, both in Fin- Ruotsalainen. fore moving to Leia Media. land and interna- The company has a vision of During the past year, Kaijärvi tionally. Founded helping media companies create Sami Ruotsalainen has met people from dozens of in 2002, the com- new digital services for their cus- media companies in Finland, the pany began internationalising after tomers. 'We want to work with United States and Europe. Accord- the New York Times became a cus- media companies to find new, in- ing to Kaijärvi, Next Media has tomer in 2006. novative solutions for bringing played a decisive role in terms of 'We saw Next Media as a good existing services to consumers forming international contacts. channel for developing the future and for developing completely He sees the markets with of digital media with the whole in- new business functions.' At this the most potential as being Po- dustry,' stated Sami Ruotsalainen point, more than 75% of Conmio's land, Germany, the Netherlands, from Conmio. turnover comes from outside Fin- Sweden and the United States. During Next Media, Conmio has land, the majority from the United Testing is going to a deeper level tested new features for its services States. Latin America is considered with more advanced devices. In and products, and then integrated to be the strongest growth market. China, where the company's own them into products when success- The goal is for more than 70% of resources are still inadequate at ful. Along with mobile phones, Con- turnover to come from outside Fin- this time, it's cooperating with a mio's software enables digital ser- land in the future as well. company aiming to digitalize the vices to be built into tablets and TV network. desktop browsers. The development projects in Next Media have been in-

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 39 INTERNATIONALISATION

Ellibs is an e-book expert Ellibs has operated technology, logistics, user rights, usage Book Fair, Ellibs will be at the Finnish in the e-book mar- statistics, and money ﬂow manage- pavilion to tell the story of how Finland ket since 2002 and ment among different parties. Without has been successful with libraries. its lending system Next Media, this type of project would Internationalisation is still in the is used in nearly all never have been possible. early stage for Ellibs. During this year, Finnish libraries. Next Along with Finland, Ellibs already has the intention is to determine the level Jarmo Heikkilä Media began devel- some installations in Sweden, Estonia of international interest and further oping a library distribution model that and Russia. productise the concept if necessary. covered the entire value chain, so it ‘We believe that the concepts devel- With regard to export, the technology was natural for Ellibs to join the pro- oped in Next Media also have potential is already looking good. gramme. in international markets. To our knowl- Jarmo Heikkilä from Ellibs sees par- edge, the concept that was created is ticularly high value in the trials con- unique – even on a global scale,’ states ducted, which had to take into account Heikkilä. At the upcoming Frankfurt

ePaper Finland moves publications into the digital era ePaper Finland was established in gether with other Next Media part- Ikonen also believes that the Next 2008. In the same year, the company ners, and we've obtained valuable Media cooperation provides good con- launched its Lehtiluukku service, which feedback for product development. ditions for internationalisation. The has become Finland's leading market- In Next Media, ePaper researched company intends to launch its elec- place for newspapers and magazines. applications, as well as the easiest and tronic Lehtiluukku service in other Nor- Lehtiluukku has moved hundreds of most effective way to produce a digital dic countries and in Holland. publications into the digital era. product from a printed magazine. ‘Internationalisation is one of the ‘We joined Next Media after reading One example of a development idea company's most important targets, be- about the launch of a project that was that has already been implemented in- cause we're already the market leader related to the company's core area. The volves adding tags to a physical mag- in Finland,’ explains Ikonen as he sums primary goal was to develop our own azine rack, which then link customers up ePaper Finland's plans for the future. competence and new product ideas,’ to the electronic versions of the publi- says Jouni Ikonen from ePaper Finland. cations. The greatest beneﬁts of Next 'We have been able to try out and test Media for the company were the les- our new features for our products to- sons learned about what not to do. Paper

Silencio knows audio and video Silencio has de- ent way of touring cultural attractions,' Next Media has contributed to support- veloped audio and says Teemu Oksanen from Silencio. ing the 30–50% of the annual turnover video production pro- Guidio includes the production, growth of this company, which was es- cesses in Next Media. management and distribution of audio tablished in 2007. According to Oksa- According to the guides for smartphones. Other devel- nen, the target for growth in the future company, develop- opment work has also continued while is just as high. Silencio operates in the Teemu Oksanen ing new products is Next Media was in progress. In late Nordic countries through partners, and the only way for mi- 2013, the company was awarded fund- opportunities to enter the American cro-enterprises to grow faster than the ing for a product development project market have also been explored. pace of organic growth. aimed at both testing business mod- Although Silencio's international ‘Next Media provided us with new els for the concept and then taking it turnover prior to Next Media was al- business contacts, and the work done to international markets – initially the most non-existent, it's expected to be- over the four years of the project re- Nordic countries and the United States. come a signiﬁcant factor in the future. sulted in new product ideas, such as the ‘Next Media has played a crucial role in Guidio audio-guide service for a differ- concept development,' states Oksanen.

40 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 THEMEBUSINESS

Jyri Korenius the transformation of huittisten sanomalehti

Jyri Korenius, Managing Director From a development idea of Huittisten Sanomalehti, at the to a new strategy door to the newsroom

The position of local media as it competes with advertising ated in business facilities, and road- space offered by global online services is a challenging one. side LCD screens to accompany the Purposefully building a content service into an active meeting local newspaper and online portal. place for advertisers and the audience can allow local media to New perspectives on markets take up a position that is only made possible by local knowledge. Advertisers felt that a local newspa- This is how Huittisten Sanomalehti operated in Next Media. per alone didn't ofer sufcient visibility and circulation, although they Te starting point for the Palveleva taste of reality quite quickly. Te de- did believe newspaper advertising is Huittinen online service in Next velopment process proved that the very strong. On the other hand, nor- Media was the idea that something best way to implement new things is mally-priced newspaper advertising would have to be done in local to progress in small steps and intro- was also considered expensive. newspaper operations in the face of duce them to people gradually. We Traditional marketing that tar- changing markets. also learned that the support from gets households proved to be too In Huittinen, this involved devel- social networks is necessary. Tese narrow in scope. Te goal was spec- oping a portal to meet the needs of networks highlight the local element ified as market-centred activities, the local people and advertisers. We in the best possible way, and even which involve identifying diferent wanted to use the project to develop Google and its local advertisements segments in the local region. Along new types of operating methods and fnd that hard to beat. with households, these segments create new sales opportunities, but include passing drivers, people run- we never imagined that the devel- Implementing new distribution ning errands in the city and pedes- opment process would lead to a methods trians. Te idea was to expand use change in the strategy of our whole A common state of mind was found of hyperlocal content to a larger geo- company. both inside the company and with graphic area. customers. The objective was to Technologies related to gesture Companies as independent make publishing easy and ensure control of content were also cre- content producers that the new publishing methods ated and tested in the project. Tese We wanted to create a common lo- didn't cause an increased workload. enable dialogue between a mobile cation where local companies could Local advertisers took a very posit- application and screens. produce their own content. The ive attitude towards a multi-channel Although the amount of advertis- Palveleva Huittinen online service approach, even considering it essen- ing in the newspaper has dropped, was the outcome of this work. Com- tial to reaching all customer target turnover has continued to grow via panies can independently produce groups. the collaboration network of content material for the portal, such as ad- Several new publishing channels producers – indeed, afer the devel- vertisements and bulletins, by reg- were created as a result of the pro- opment of the mobile application, istering as content producers. Te ject. New developments include a advertising sales increased by 20% development work experienced a mobile application, info screens loc- during the frst months of 2012.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 41 ADVERTISEMENT

THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE Palvelujen digitalisoituminen on mahdollisuus mediataloille

Media-alan transformaatio ravisut- Esimerkkejä ratkaisuistamme taa mediasisällön tuottajia ja kulut- EMS-järjestelmä on tietoturvallinen ja modulaarinen tajia. Digitalisoitumisen myötä kaik- ratkaisu mediamateriaalin jalostamiseen, jakeluun ki sisältö, sisällöntuotanto, palvelut ja hallintaan. Se on pilvipalvelu, joka auttaa media- yrityksiä työn etenemisen ja laadun varmistamises- ja niistä saatavat asiakas- ja käyt- sa, materiaalin nopeassa ja oikeamuotoisessa tökokemukset on mietittävä uudel- jakelussa sekä arkistoinnissa antaen myös reaali- leen. Lisäksi mainonta, tähän saak- aikaisen kokonaiskuvan koko tuotantoprosessista. ka mediatalojen suurin tulonlähde, Myös muut käytössä olevat järjestelmät voidaan on enenevässä määrin mainostajan integroida ratkaisuun. Tiedon integroitu monikanavamainonnan itse tuottamaa ja jakamaa sisältöä. ratkaisu, Cross Advertising, puolestaan yksinker- ”Autamme mediataloja säilyttämään kilpailukykyn- taistaa ja tehostaa koko mainontaprosessin. sä ja uudistamaan toimintaansa kokonaisvaltai- Järjestelmä kattaa niin painetun kuin verkkomedian sesti. Järjestelmäintegraatiot, pilvipalvelut ja analy- mainonnan myynnistä varaukseen, suunnitteluun, tiikka luovat uusia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia, sillä tuotantoon ja laskutukseen, joten sen avulla hal- niiden avulla aikaansaadaan kokonaan uudenlai- litset monikanavaisia mainospaketteja sanoma- sia kuluttajakokemuksia - tyytyväisiä asiakkaita,” lehdistä internettiin. Mainostajille tehokas prosessi kertoo Harri Maho, kehitysjohtaja, Media-toimiala, tarkoittaa entistä parempaa palvelua, tarkempaa Tieto. panostusten seurantaa ja parempia mahdollisuuksia tulosten analysointiin. Pieni on kaunista Meneillään olevan mediamurroksen keskellä pai- ”Haluamme tukea kallislehdet ovat menestyneet suhteellisen hyvin. suomalaisen median Niiden vetovoima perustuu kohderyhmän tarpei- markkina-asemaa kan- den tuntemiseen ja sitä kautta juuri oikeanlaisen sainvälisessä kilpailussa mediasisällön tuottamiseen. Uskollisen lukijakun- ja kehitämme palvelu- nan muuttuessa mediasisältöä haetaan kuitenkin valikoimaamme tiiviissä uusista kanavista. Paineita tuo myös markkinoiden yhteistyössä asiak- globalisoituminen ja sen myötä saatava ilmainen kaidemme kanssa,” mediasisältö. toteaa Harri Maho.

Digitalisointi luo mahdollisuuksia Lisätietoa: Monet Tiedon mediayrityksille tarjoamat palvelut www.tieto.ﬁ/toimialat/media ovat toteutettavissa nopeasti ja pienin investoin- [email protected] nein, sillä ne ovat monistettavia pilvipalveluja. Autamme asiakkaitamme sekä mittaamaan että analysoimaan tuotteidensa ja palveluidensa tehokkuutta kokonaan uudella tavalla. ”Pelkkä klik- kausten määrä ei ole riittävä tieto,” sanoo Maho. Hän korostaa, että digitaalista sisältöä ja sen tavoit- tavuutta on mitattava monin eri tavoin ja saatuja tu- loksia on myös osattava hyödyntää uuden sisällön tuotannossa, jakelussa sekä mainonnassa.

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there is no such thing as a typical media consumer The daily rhythm of a digital consumer Consumer and media use studies conducted at Next Media reveals how important it is to have a deep understanding of the consumer and his or her motives in the use of various channels and services. There is no such thing as a typical media user or a media day, but age and gender are the most signiﬁcant factors in media consumption.

Kristiina Markkula, computers and televisions take up the COMET Research Centre of the Federation of the Finnish the largest part of our media days. University of Tampere examined Media Industry A key factor in the results was the this in a pilot survey in the circula- growth in the use of smartphones tion areas of the newspapers Aamul- In late 2012Åbo Akademi Univer- and tablets, which seemed to remain ehti, Kaleva, and Keskisuomalainen sity carried out an extensive online strong, based on intentions to buy in the summer of 2013. Te target survey for Next Media, in which and actual bying decisions in 2013. group comprised people aged from consumer behaviour, the routines For this reason, the use of the media 15 to 79 (N=903). Te sample was of media consumption – as well as is increasingly dispersed. News ap- equally divided in diferent areas probable changes in these – were as- plications are among the most pop- and corresponded to the population sessed. Te survey examined media ular, both on smartphones and on in the region. use as a whole, and especially the tablets. While there is certainly a great use of smartphones and tablets. Just deal of research available on difer- under 1000 Finnish consumers be- Staying up-to-date ent media, the fact that the research tween the ages of 15 and 80 took part motivates the most comes from diferent sources means in the survey. Te main observations Regional media companies have that it is difcult to compare the rel- of the study were that age and gen- long lacked an overall picture of the ative consumption of these media der remain the most signifcant fac- media use of consumers in their own in relation to one another. Further- tors in media consumption, and that operational area. Tietoykkönen and more, the regional size of the sam-

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 43 BUSINESS

ples has ofen remained too small. the ten most important media items. respondents using some device while In the research method built and For participants aged 16–19, as well watching television. General brows- piloted at Next Media, the aim has as those aged 18–25, the most impor- ing of the internet is most common, been to bring the media to the same tant media items included books, along with the social media, or look- line in the study so as to make com- but topping the lists were Facebook, ing up TV listings online. Only 3% parison possible. YouTube, Google, e-mail, and tex- looked for more detailed informa- According to the results, regional ting services – with 16–19 olds con- tion on products that were adver- newspapers are still read mostly in a sidering blogs the most important tised. printed version (weekly reach 62%), media. During commercial breaks it is but reading the online version is also In older age groups the traditional most common to do something fairly common (30%). On the other media, such as printed newspapers, other than watch television. Gener- hand, use of the mobile version (4%) TV news, radio news, and books took ally people leave the TV space either and the online print replica version centre stage, but the list also included physically or psychologically. Adver- (3%) remain fairly rare. e-mail, Google, and Facebook. tisements are usually seen to be In the coming year respondents Of the six groups that were stud- annoying, with excessive repetitions. expected their consumption of digi- ied, readers of the Kotiliesi women´s Respondents feel that the volume of tal media to increase in the following magazine aged 45–55 were the least the advertisements is too high com- twelve months – not only in terms of likely to use the social media. pared with that of the programmes. how much they read online publica- About half of the respondents Consumers ready tions, but also in the way they use the were nevertheless ready to share websites of the Finnish Broadcasting for targeted advertising their personal profle information Company (YLE) and the major com- An extensive survey conducted in (i.e. age, gender, hobbies, interests) mercial channel (MTV3) websites – the spring of 2012 examined TV in order to get better targeted adver- including watching television online. viewing habits, the use of 2nd screen tising. On the other hand, there was Te respondents also expected to devices, and attitudes towards both less willingness to disclose to adver- reduce their use of printed newspa- traditional and targeted advertising tisers one's profession, educational pers and television. – including advertising targeted at background, relationship status, or 2nd screen devices. Te study was information on children and con- More versatility in conducted by the Technical Research sumption habits. Product and ser- media landscape Centre of Finland (VTT) on about vice offers – together with prizes In 2012 and 2013 Aalto ARTS studied 2500 members of a customer panel involving products – were among the experiences leading to commit- of TeliaSonera. the two most popular ways of moti- ment and engagement of various user Te fndings showed multitask- vating respondents to establish a groups toward diferent media, and the ing to be typical – with two thirds of personal interest profle. engagement experiences that are the Media platforms available to consumers most important for each user group. Qualitative studies have been made TV in several target groups, mainly on Radio the basis of age and the consumption of a certain media product. Te Laptop computer sample in each involved 12 people. Desktop computer Tere was a total of six target groups that were researched. Te number of Smartphone media items used by one consumer Newspaper subscription varied from 37 to more than 100 Tablet – with people tending to follow an increasing number of media items as E-reader they get older. What was signifcant was that the younger the age group, the fewer tra- A survey of the media day by Åbo Akademi University conducted by sending out an electronic ditional media were included among questionnaire at the turn of the year 2012/2013.

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Media consumption during the day

The popularity of media genres at different times of the day at the turn of the year 2012/2013. *Media by smartphone/tablet – numbers divided by the number of smartphones (n=553) and tablet users (n=189). Other numbers calculated on the basis of the whole sample (n=982).

Qualitative research in an increased willingness to pay innovations. Ofen new innovations Qualitative consumer research helps for content and services later in life. emerge exceptionally quickly, but in the understanding of factors such Growing accustomed to free con- are then adopted agonizingly slowly. as the relationship between media tent as a student reduces the will- Aalto BIZ survey involved inter- consumption and motivation, and ingness to pay. A longitudinal study views with people who saw them- also why consumers are committed conducted by the research insti- selves as opponents of media inno- users of a particular medium. One tute VTT examined the media con- vations ranging in age from 20 to 50. of the goals of consumer research is sumption of several young adults in to help in the development of new 2004 and 2012, and on the impact Sharing of news concepts. of childhood media use on present in everyday life In 2012 several qualitative studies consumption. Another signifcant change is that were made on small target groups, A changing media environment few people now follow the news mainly in the Helsinki region. A also brings counter-reactions aimed from one single source – with peo- summary and reports on the stud- at holding on to established habits ple instead following news from dif- ies can be found on the www.next- and one's own persona. Reactions ferent media, throughout the day. media.f website under publications can include refusal to use Facebook, Te most frequent way to spread the for 2013. favouring non-electronic interac- news and to discuss events is still tion, or adhering to the use of the face-to-face interaction either with Habits taken on when young print media. relatives, friends, or colleagues at have long-lasting effects work. Media consumption by young adults Consumer resistance News is also shared through social in the 21st century has developed in Tese results are also supported by a media, in which the motive can be a fairly logical direction. It is clear study conducted by Aalto University the seeking of the common good, that one´s experience of the media School of Business on consumer re- or the construction of one's own in one´s childhood home has a clear sistance. Although it is important to identity. Finally, it should be noted efect on one´s attitudes towards the follow the big trends in media use, that these fndings are the result of print media, television and cinema users deviating from the trends can research by the COMET Research later in life. be interesting from the point of view Centre at the University of Tampere. If a readiness to pay for media con- of a supplier of content and services. A survey conducted together with tent such as newspapers is instilled Resistance often targets new Tietoykkönen also supports these at an early age, then this is refected technologies, or product or service observations.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 45 THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE

Technology for business

• Combining technologies for innovative digital services • Co-innovating the future with consumers online

Caj Södergård Olli Kuusisto Anu Seisto Research Professor Senior Scientist Research Team Leader Tel. +358 50 553 9356 Tel. +358 40 737 0948 Tel. +358 40 547 1609 Caj.Sodergard@vtt.fi Olli.Kuusisto@vtt.fi Anu.Seisto@vtt.fi

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is a globally networked multitechnological applied research organization. VTT provides high-end technology solutions and innovation services. We enhance our customers’ competitiveness, thereby creating prerequisites for society’s sustainable development, employment, and wellbeing. 46 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 BUSINESS

Digital paper reaches rural areas in the morning In many sparsely populated areas, the daily newspaper does not reach households until the daily mail is delivered, which can mean it gets to homes in the afternoon – with the weekend papers arriving only on Monday. In the digital age, a newspaper that is late does not encourage people to subscribe – with increasing delivery costs also reducing the attractiveness of such a subscription. Next Media has studied the possibilities of rectifying the matter with the help of a digital newspaper. Kristiina Markkula, Federation of the Finnish Media Industry Photo Lapin Kansa, Jussi Leinonen.

As delivery and postage costs rise pro- ment on delivery of the newspaper by parts of the North Karelia region. For hibitively high in many rural areas, tablet to the villages of Äkäslompolo the six-week test phase, the group digital editions of papers offer pub- and Lisma in Finnish Lapland. The ex- were given tablets with the Kar- lishers a way out. Indeed there are periment was not aimed at seeking a jalainen facsimile edition installed. trials underway in many parts of the new product – the aim was to study The aim of the experiment was to country. the impact of earlier delivery on the ascertain if the print replica edition It has been noted in studies by reading experience on on subscrip- could replace or complement the Next Media, that willingness to sub- tions. paper edition, and how ready readers scribe is significantly increased by were to pay for it. digital early morning delivery. Main Digital paper arrives on time As was the case in the Lapin Kansa problems include how to find suit- In the experiment, 50 customers who study, the people involved appre- able terminal devices, and teaching were beyond the reach of early de- ciated the fact that the paper was customers how to use them. Using livery were offered tablet computers available first thing in the morning. digital devices often requires teach- and the Lapin Kansa online print rep- The facsimile edition was also re- ing – sometimes at very close range. lica edition for a period of six weeks. ceived well as a new reading expe- In April–May 2013 Lapin Kansa The experiment and its progress was rience. Navigation within the paper newspaper conducted an experi- also reported in the paper itself, and and reading the stories was seen to the readers were invited to keep tabs be quite effortless. of what the experiences were. While some said that they found A full two thirds of respondents it harder to read long stories on the wanted to subscribe to the digital fac- tablet, thirteen households felt that simile edition after the trial was over. the facsimile edition could replace

Lisma Getting to read Lapin Kansa in the the printed paper. Members of the morning was a clear improvement on sample group would have been will-

Äkäslompolo 300 km the former situation. The digital edi- ing to pay 10–15 euros a month for tion was seen to have other advant- the Karjalainen facsimile edition. 230 km ages as well: the papers do not pile up on a table, it is environmentally HBL pioneers in digital experiment Rovaniemi 50 km friendly, it is easy to carry along, and Before these two papers, digital dis- Haukitaipale the text and pictures can be enlarged. tribution was also tried by the Swed- ish-language newspaper Hufvud- Print replica as a replacement stadsbladet, which studied in the The newspaper Karjalainen imple- spring of 2011 in the Åland Islands if During the trial, the Lapin Kansa newspaper mented a similar trial on the edges of subscribers to the printed newspa- was sent to tablets in 50 households in the villages of Äkäslompolo and Lisma, where its own circulation area in the spring pers would be willing to exchange the printed paper would not have arrived of 2013. Taking part in the test were their subscription for the electronic until the afternoon. 20 subscriber households in different version. See pages 31–34.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 47 MEDIATHEME EXPERIENCE BEST media experience Technology to help in measuring the media experience ON A TABLET

Distribution via digital terminal devices has placed a number of new challenges for newspapers and magazines. One of the most difficult ones is the design of the layout of a digital publication. Terminal devices are significantly smaller than the original printed newspapers, which means that bringing forth the big picture, the priorities, and abundance is difficult, as is the planning of visual navigation. There are, however, a number of basic technical solutions to these problems. We brought media layout experts together with the researchers of media experience from Aalto University and VTT, with the aim of uncovering the differences in media experiences with the help of biosignals and eye-tracking technology.

Eskoensio Pipatti, nifcantly less space available than hierarchy and experience. Also Next Media is the case with paper publications ascertained was the degree to which In printed publications, experienced and the use of automatic templates readers appreciate these characteris- professionals have long known how is necessary in order to save on time tics in digital distribution. to create layouts that are appropri- and costs. Second, the study looked at what ate for the content and context, and Te aim of the Next Media media kind of a basic structure of a digital which produce good media experi- experience project was to ascer- publication is pleasing to readers, ences. tain the construction of an optimal and if it is possible to fnd groups of However, digital terminal devices, layout for digital terminal devices in readers with difering preferences. and especially tablets, are so new terms of two criteria. Tese tests were conducted using that skills have not yet developed Firstly the project sought to ascer- fve diferent versions of Helsingin very far. Te relatively small screen tain what kinds of template solutions Sanomat – the printed paper, as well on tablets means that there is sig- would bring the best experience of as four diferent digital versions.

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VARIATION OF ABUNDANCE AND HIERARCHY Five different layout models What is the best way to and size they then ap- plan a layout for a tablet- pear on the users de- sized display so that it not vice. Te sense that the reader is being ofered only attracts your attention an abundance of arti- but is also dynamic? What cles is also important, is the best way to create conveying the sense a front page that entices that the publication has many interesting things users to read on? Answers to ofer. to these questions were Tese have functioned sought in the Next Media as part of the heuristics study through self-eval- of professionals, but uation on the conscious it has not been clear what their efect on the media experience, and reader is in the new through measurements digital terminal devices to gauge the unconscious, in which the possibili- so-called psycho-physiolog- ties for their implementation are limited. ical reactions. Te study tested four Matias Kivikangas, layout models for the Aalto BIZ front page of a tablet edition. In them the Four different layouts that were studied through the reactions and evaluations of readers. The most desired appearance was the Te planning of a layout is not an programme automat- layout with high hierarchy and high abundance – top right. Hier- exact science. According to the fa- ically sought out the archy grows upward, and abundance to the right. mous planner Mario Garcia, there is latest news items each no theory of newspaper design, and day. Layout matters he does not yearn for one. On the The layouts were developed Te scientifc aim of the study was to other hand, he says that profession- into credible layout options for a get clear reactive feelings to the hi- als develop by doing, by experiment- tablet publication, and they varied erarchy and abundance – not merely ing, and by learning form others. between high and low abundance four diferent layouts. Te difculty However, it is possible through sci- and hierarchy. In addition to these in creating a model, which would entifc means to investigate the rules was also a ffh option – a page with have both a large hierarchy and of thumb and assumptions of design just a simple list of headlines. Te small abundance, which was ac- professionals. aim of the latter was to have a refer- knowledged in advance, made per- ence point of minimal reaction from ception more difcult for readers, Hierarchy and abundance the reader to which other reactions which means that a watertight con- In the Layout Alternatives study, the to other formats could tehn be com- nection between the experience of research question is: how do hierar- pared. hierarchy and abundance could not chy and abundance afect the media Te aim was to compare the read- be achieved in the measurements. experience in a digital terminal de- ers' own assessments and their auto- Nevertheless, diferent layouts pro- vice? Hierarchy is the name given to matic emotional reactions – that is, voked diferent reactions. A layout the way that each news story is as- what the readers themselves felt that with the greatest hierarchy and the signed a relative importance which they had experienced and how they greatest abundance (see photo, top is used to determine in which order really experience diferent layouts. right) received the most positive

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MEDIA EXPERIENCE

Continues from page 49 Variation of abundance and hierarchy feedback. One factor afecting this might have been that this layout resembles most the one which is used in paper publications and was therefore most familiar.

Contradictions When the options were closer to each other, as was the case with the Printed newspaper other layouts, the way the questions were formulated became more im- iPad-application Print replica portant. Te option of a low hierarchy and high abundance (see photo, bottom right) got the second-highest points from the test subjects when evaluated alone, but when all alternatives were examined to- Participants in gether, hardly anyone chose it as a the user tests compared ﬁve dif- layout for their own paper. Instead, ferent versions of readers chose the alternative, de- Helsingin Sanomat, spite the fact that – when evaluated the printed news- separately – it was no popular than paper, and four digital versions. the other layouts. It is interesting that the two ver- Browser newspaper HS.ﬁ website sions the readers said they preferred were actually the very two versions that people were signif- Five different cantly less likely to stop and read. If the task of a front page is to versions of a newspaper guide readers to interesting stories as efciently as possible, these two Many techniques are available for digital distribution. Tablets, achieved it the best. reader applications, print replica editions, and browser papers Te clearest confict between the seek to make the daily reading package available in different requested self-evaluations and the forms and with different degrees of usability. Helsingin unconscious psycho-physiological reactions came out in connection Sanomat has all of these in its selection, so we put the with the option containing high different versions to the test and allowed the test subjects to hierarchy and low abundance (see compare them and report on their experiences. photo, top lef). It was seen to be the least interesting, but nevertheless, it was the most read and it pro- Janne Laine, VTT the form and manner in which news voked the strongest biosignal indi- content is ofered to the reader – can cations of attention. Apparently the The way we read newspapers is in many ways afect reading and the large amount of text contained in changing –people are using the in- reading experience that the reader the alternative attracted people's ternet more, with electronic publi- gets from the publication. attention and to move from skim- cations and news services constantly We sought to ascertain what ming to deep reading, even if they on the hunt for the best possible style kinds of solutions were most appro- did not like the structure as such. and layout. Te impact of layout – priate to the electronic versions of

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A –Helsingin Sanomat in print nevertheless preferred one of the B– iPad application C – Print replica edition digital versions to the printed paper. D –Daily newspaper (browser paper) E – HS.ﬁ web page The tests – with their various phases and their eye cameras, questions, interviews, and comments – gave plenty of indications as to the difering reading habits and customs that people have. Te tests also indicated that diferent layout versions

Share of participants (%) Share matched the diferent reading styles among the readers in diferent ways.

Web form divides opinions

Order of preference Although the results show many kind of diferences, the most signif- Participants' preference distributions regarding the different versions of the publication. The bar grouping on the left shows what percentage of the respondents selected cant dividing line that separated the each magazine version as their overall preferred choice (group 1). The next bar grouping two main groups of readers was the (group 2) shows what percentage of the respondents chose each version as their second attitude toward the web style fow of best option, if their favourite option was not available. news that is constantly updated. publications or news services. While among the readers. Te layout that was Readers in the one group liked electronic publishing undoubtedly well suited to one way of reading the both the printed paper and the elec- ofers a number of new possibilities news did not meet the needs of another tronic version that can be seen to and challenges, we still lack a deep type of reader or reading habit. originate from the tradition of the understanding of the impact that When individual versions were printed newspaper. Te print rep- diferent kinds of layout solutions compared, the printed paper was lica edition, which uses the layout of have on the reading experience. the most popular choice. A tabloid the pages of the printed paper, was format printed paper was chosen as especially popular in this group. Te Printed newspaper still the preferred alternative by 42 per- web style presentation of news in the most popular cent of the 40 people taking part in the manner of HS.f was not to their User tests with many phases con- the test. liking. Tere was, however, another ducted in laboratory conditions gave signifcant group who enjoyed read- comparative information on the read- Electronic versions prove popular ing web style news. Tis group also ing experience of the fve publication Although each individual digital appreciated the reading experience versions of Helsingin Sanomat news- version fell considerably short of the of the printed paper, but they did not paper. Test subjects, each in turn, popularity of the printed paper, ac- see any reason for an electronic edi- read the printed paper as well as four cording to these results, a majority tion that mimics the printed news- diferent electronic versions, and an- (about 58 percent of respondents) paper. swered questions. At the end of the testing – which took about an hour and a half – each participant in the test placed the publications in his or her order of preference. Te frst was the version that the person would choose if only one could be chosen. Te last was the one that the person would accept as his or her only version of the publication only afer the four others. None of the ways of ofering and presenting the news articles to read- A participant views and comments a video recorded with eye-tracking glasses during testing. The ers was overwhelmingly preferable orange circle in the video view indicates the focus of the person's gaze.

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Harri Heikkilä, Getting tablet publications Sami Pekkala in shape with a Aalto ARTS new heuristic model

Researchers Harri Heikkilä and Sami Pekkala evaluating the new iOS and Android beta versions of the Helsingin Sanomat. The photo also shows a list of around thirty important ﬁndings.

Tablet visuality and usab- – with the tablet market set to grow have been used in several design ility require a new way of by 50% in 2014 alone. and renewal projects. Many tablet thinking. A touch screen Te new user interfaces in touch publications of the publishers like screens have been a challenge for Otava, Bonnier and HBL have gone requires different approach readers and for designers, too: the through this heuristic evaluation, than a website. In the Next development of established forms but in the last year publishers like Media project, researchers for the magazine and book content Sanoma News and Sanoma Maga- at Aalto University School has only just begun. zines have worked intensively with Te new heuristic method devel- the Media Concepts Research Group of Art, Design and Architec- oped especially for tablet publi- (MCRG) in Aalto ARTS in develop- ture (Aalto ARTS) developed cations is a useful tool for imple- ing both current and forthcoming a method to improve the menting good practises, which can publications. visuality and usability of improve publication quality and Te new iPad-publication of Hel- new digital publications. flawlessness at the development singin Sanomat, the redesigned stage – as well as enhance user expe- Metro newspaper, as well as the new rience. digital Donald Duck app was devel- Publications produced for touch oped in collaboration with research- screen tablets and mobile devices The method has been utilised in ers from Aalto ARTS. Te heuristic have increased tremendously over many publications assessment of the service started six the last few years. Indeed, this trend Tablet publication heuristics cre- months before the launch, so that looks set to continue into the future ated in 2012 and improved in 2013 the findings could be taken into

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 53 MEDIATHEME EXPERIENCE account when planning the next phase of the user evaluation and fnalising the service. Te evaluation of the tablet version of a children's book club was carried out only afer the frst release, so the corrections will be delivered through updates in later versions.

Spot the errors Te most common mistakes made in tablet publications are designing the touch areas too small in size, la- belling them unclearly or placing them unergonomically. In addition, a better navigation experience needs to be provided – not only to ensure the reader has a clearer understanding of where they are in a publica- The iPad version of the Helsingin Sanomat supplement NYT was evaluated in the tion – but also so that hints as to the autumn of 2013. A problem was discovered with navigation: users must ﬁrst know how to use the Pinch gesture before the Menu view appears. functions on ofer can be displayed. A good tablet publication should not be designed in the same manner as a Also the students from Aalto ‘A highly practical way website or a print publication. ARTS participated in developing the to present the ﬁndings. Te best results are obtained by new evaluation methods on a course Offers good tools to using the heuristic assessment iter- where a dozen students assessed the atively, which means gradual devel- mobile version of Me Naiset wom- achieve results quickly.’ opment of the publication by succes- en´s magazine. Samuli Jakobsson, sively evaluating the new releases. Development Manager at Helsingin Sanomat

Interaction for tablet ads In addition to developing heuristics for count both the versatility and strength tablet publications, Aalto ARTS has cre- of the used interactivity. ated an instrument for assessing the The most important existing inter- interactivity of advertisements on tab- actions in the tablet ads have been- lets. When the assessments as to the modelled using 19 variables. These extent and activity of various proper- include social interactions such as ties are associated with ad viewing, it sharing and properties of the device is possible to ﬁnd out how interactivity such as use of the gyroscope and mo- affects the effectiveness of the ad. tion sensors as well as qualitative char- Compared to ads on web pages, a acteristics such as gameness. variety of additional ways can be used The assessment method is rel- to attract the attention of the reader atively simple and it even provides in tablet publications, and a special guidelines for the gradation of vari- method needs to be used to evaluate ables. them. The assessment takes into ac-

54 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 MEDIATHEME EXPERIENCE

Product development ‘The list provides a quick in social media insight into the needs One of the • The application should be de- for development and it key aims in signed for both portrait and land- is easy to keep track of the prelimi- scape use nary develop- • A fluent reading experience re- correcting the problems. ment for the quires better cohesion in the short The condensed format digital Don- stories supports agile develop- ald Duck ser- • The loading times should be vice was to find ways to improve shorter ment better than a tradi- the user participation. Beta testing Facebook worked well for locat- tional fully comprehen- for Donald Duck project by Aalto ing errors and testing preconcep- ARTS took place on Facebook in tions. Obtaining quantitative infor- sive report.’ June and July 2014. mation from questionnaires worked A couple of hundred people were fine, but as regards to qualitative Maija Savolainen, Production Manager, invited to a closed Facebook group, data, the comments were often so Sanoma Media Finland and were asked about the service short that meaningful qualitative during a three week period. The re- data was hard to extract. Agile, iterative development searchers asked some questions Sufficient resources should be Te tablet heuristics developed at about the service every day. provided for user testing and data Previously identified problems collection when using the social Aalto ARTS follows agile develop- that had been found in heuristic media, and all forms of discussion ment principles. Te study is not evaluation emerged in the Face- needs to be encouraged. The ini- intended to last for months. Te as- book group as well. The three most tial size of the group must be big sessment of several versions should important suggestions for improve- enough to ensure that there are no be accomplished within a few weeks. ment from the users were: problems with the sample being so Te new method does not favour small that no realistic conclusions broad reporting. Instead we need a can be drawn. short checklist with basic information as to the good practice that has been broken, its degree of severity, a description of the problem and a proposed solution with a screen- shot. The method also involves a presentation where the most severe problems are reviewed together with the developer and the publisher. Tis checklist is also intended for internal use in the publishing house. In addition to the agility, the tablet heuristics difers in content compared to the older approaches. Te heuristics of 90s were intended for progammes on the desktop computers of the time. Tey paid little attention to the essential issues from Aalto ARTS researchers the point of view of publications, ask questions in the like navigation and readability, not Facebook download to mention design issues special for service user group. touch screens.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 55 BUSINESS

involving users in development Aino Mensonen Prototyping VTT new content concepts

Phases of the Kaleva service development process from evaluating the concept to prototype testing through to a discussion process.

Four publishers took advan- project new media service concepts vice development. Owela is a web en- tage of Next Media's proto- and ideas were tested together with vironment developed by VTT and typing process to ﬁnd new potential users at diferent stages consists of blog-based discussion of the product development cycle. tools, user diaries, chat, question- content concepts for digital In the cases of Turun Sanomat and naires and polls that can be com- devices. The development Kaleva newspapers, testing started bined for diferent innovation and work made use of VTT's at the concept level and during the design purposes. In addition to users Open Web Lab, which lets project service prototypes were de- already registered on Owela, it was veloped. In KSF Media's case, the decided to allow publishers' own users evaluate an idea from Swedish newspaper Hufvudstads- customers to join in the testing pro- the concept level right up blabet's new digital service concept cess. More than 5,000 evaluators in- to a ﬁnal working prototype for an afernoon digital publication terested in co-development are al- for testing. was tested (see pages 33–34). ready involved in Owela. Alma Regional Media readers, in The participants commented When developing media concepts, turn, evaluated frst a service proto- actively on the publishers ideas, and it is important to understand the type (Helppo Aamulehti) and later came up with additional ideas them- needs of users and include their the new format of a facsimile edi- selves. Discussions gave information evaluations in the development pro- tion of Lapin Kansa. Te long-term not only about the everyday lives of cess from the beginning. Tey can be goal is to develop new service prod- readers – but also about their patterns asked for ideas and about their needs ucts for media companies and create of media use. and also provide feedback on con- new, innovative features for media The tests lasted for two to six cepts, various stages of prototypes, products. weeks, after which feedback was as well as further development for requested. Not only were users active fnished products and services. In OWELA supports in sharing their opinions, but it was this way, the chances of success for agile development later announced that the testing of the fnal products and services will VTT's Open Web Lab (OWELA) the Lapin Kansa print replica edition increase. In the Personal Media Hub was used in various stages of the ser- broke Owela's participation record.

56 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 BUSINESS

are designed to be browsed horison- tally – with the 24 most recent news items available. Users, though, proved to be crea- tures of habit and requested a traditional-style interface – at least to start with. Te new service was difcult for users to perceive, they didn't know whether they had already read a story or not. An interesting fnding was that a few of the evaluators used the application on mobile phones, even though it was not optimized for them in any way.

Digital early-morning delivery

Helppo Aamulehti magazine is a prototype Alma Regional Media's second con- where you can browse the 24 latest news items cept test was performed for the Lapin and advertisements on a tablet horizontally. Kansa facsimile edition. Te experiments were carried out in two Lap- From idea to prototype land villages, Lisma and Äkäslom- Kaleva and Turun Sanomat started polo, where the paper version reaches their development work at the con- households only in the afernoon or cept level and tested their ideas at Owela in the frst year using concept illustrations produced by User Intel- ligence. Te illustrations were HTML pages that allowed participants to easily understand the ideas and com- ment on them. Based on the feedback, both media houses tested the concept first by Owela provides a platform of innovation for mapping the needs of small group of In the evaluation of the Easy Aamul- various stages of product and service development. The chart shows developed concepts in users. Te prototypes were then built ehti prototype (helppo.aamulehti.f), innovation process stages. based on user feedback and tested users gave feedback on a new kind of with larger number of participants. constantly updated news service. Te evening. Te test lasted for six weeks prototype is still available as a beta and during that time the users were Readers' commitment to the version. given tablets for using the service. prototypes Easy Aamulehti was designed as During testing, a considerable Alma Regional Media and HBL were a fast-loading, user-friendly service, amount of qualitative data about the seeking feedback on a pre-planned especially for tablet users. One key everyday life and media use of the service prototype. HBL had devel- factor was to provide solutions for participants was collected. In addi- oped a new afernoon news concept advertisers in which they would be tion, the daily newspaper received which was evaluated by people who able to fnd out how many users had feedback on the development of has critical attitude on using digital viewed the adverts. As a result of this, its editorial material. Afer the test media. there is no possibility to scroll down period, all of the participants would Alma Regional Media soughtdi pages, neither are articles contained have recommended the service to feedback on two diferent concepts. in diferent sections. Instead, pages friends.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 57 THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE

YOUR SOUND DESIGN EXPERT AUDIO BOOKS POST PRODUCTION AUDIO GUIDES

www.silencio.fi

58 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 JOURNALISM reader reporters change processes Editorial team meets reader-produced content When readers are involved in content production, editorial processes also need updating. Researchers observed the work of the editorial and developed best practices.

Merja Helle, Aalto ARTS

Diferent media are increasingly uti- the most committed readers to work some of the reporters shunned the lising readers and viewers in their as reader-reporters. When a more idea of including readers in content content production in co-operation fixed relationship is forged with production. At frst, many reporters with professional reporters. In Fin- these people, the newsroom can also only appreciated printed newspapers land, this feld has been pioneered actively request photos, short news and complained about the decline of by the Sanoma City Newspapers unit stories and columns from them. journalistic quality especially in on- which is now part of Helsingin Sano- Sixty reader-reporters participated line publications. mat. in the training event organised by The same trend has been visi- For a period of four years, the Next the researchers. Temes that came ble internationally. Tis resistance Media programme followed the util- up repeatedly in the interviews were can hinder the full implementaiton isation of content sent in by readers the importance of creating reader of the new working method. The as well as the changes occurring in communities, the need for train- researchers analysed ways of speak- editorial work. ing as well as the ease of sending in ing that represented the resistance Researchers at Aalto ARTS were photos and stories. that managers should be sensitive to even present in the daily work of and attempt to eliminate. the editorial team when they were Job descriptions and working However, according to Janne Kai- developing new methods to improve methods change järvi, who was the editor-in-chief of work practices. Under the leadership Te new way of thinking revolution- the city newspaper department at of Heli Väätäjä, researchers at the ised the editorial team's working the start of the project, this kind of Tampere University of Technology methods. Te primary focus for sto- working method can be used to cut looked into the use of reader report- ries became the online publication, up to a third of the editorial team's ers and technical platforms. from which articles were picked for costs. diferent newspapers and services. The most active Planning meetings became obso- Unique way of working become reader-reporters lete, as the reporters were no longer Reader participation on such a large Readers were keen to play their at the centre of thinking up the news scale is rare even at the international part in creating content for Metro – stories. In addition, the involvement level. Tere have been experiments into with readers sending the paper over of the readers on issues close to reader activation elsewhere, but such 35,000 photos in 2012 alone – most them meant that a smaller number enthusiasm on the part of the readers of which were taken on a mobile of reporters could actually produce has not been encountered before. phone. Over 4,000 news stories were a greater amount of quality content. Few examples of similar reader primarily based on tips or photos As a result of this the editorial team reporter groups can be found in sent in by readers. need to pay special attention to change the world, especially when it comes Te editorial team was pleasantly leadership and staf motivation – espe- to printed publications. Te Metro surprised by the number and quality cially the leadership of daily news newspaper is a member of the inter- of columns ofered to Metro. During reporting in line with the new strategy. national Metro newspaper chain, 2013, readers sent in over 600 col- which is the largest of its kind. It has umns, and the editorial team chose Resistance to change in the over 17 million readers in 20 coun- to publish 60 of them. editorial team tries. Te Finnish experiences have Te best practice for creating high Transition to the new way of cre- been transferred to places such as quality content was to train some of ating content was not painless, as Montreal and Prague.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 59 SAN

SOCIAL MEDIA Eskoensio Pipatti Next Media

SOFTWARE SERVING MEDIA BIG INTERNET PETABYTE

ANALYTICS

LOG IDATA

Big data has been a key area in the development of electronic services for a number of DATAyears already – with services like Google's search engine wholly reliant on the concept of big data. Next Media has utilised the data mining methods related to big data to process media content and to reach results that many media companies now use in their operation. Big data means the processing of such large created for media companies. Trough the quantities of data that relational process- analysis of logs and content, it is possible ing is no longer enough – with data mining to ofer users more focused content in the methods required. In data mining, the pro- right place at the right time. cessed data is split into pieces, and through Another interesting application is the ‘The applica- the comparison and combination of these collection of possible article themes from tions have been pieces it is possible to quickly make fnd- the data fow at any given time, for exam- published on ings that would not be easily accessible ple from the endless content fow of social without big data prosessing. media. It is important to get a real-time an open source Media content and their usege data, or picture of online content because readers basis under the logs, comprise just such big data. Te most have gained more focus in content produc- MIT licence’ important utilisation areas for this data are tion. in both the analysis of article content and These types of algorithms have been in user behaviour. For example, articles can developed in Next Media's Sofware News- be automatically analysed for fnding pri- room project. Te goal of the project is to mary keywords instead of the cumbersome construct a so-called snapshot system that system of manual tagging that was previ- analyses the surrounding news fow and ously used. online content. At Next Media, this research work has Trough methods of data mining, news- been carried out in the Metropolia project, worthy items are sought from this infor- where ready-made applications have been mation fow.

60 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 TECHNOLOGY

Free-of-charge solutions – Juju, Huhu and Muru

How can keywords be collected from recommendations, user profiles and groups. This architecture enables the text content without having to tag data analysis. user to focus on different perspec- them manually? And not just key- You can test Juju with your own tives, and then get to grips with the words but proper names such as Finnish material at: detail of the content. the names of people and places as http://ereading.metropolia.f/key- Muru can also be used to recom- well. How can I find similar content phrase.html mend and search for content. This, in to recommend at the end of an arti- turn, opens up new avenues of re- Find proper names with Huhu cle being read? Next Media has de- search as Muru can be used to eas- Huhu is also an open source applica- veloped applications for these cases ily analyse the kinds of words people tion, and it can be used for selecting and they are available to be used by use to recognise similarity of news out proper names from a text. Huhu everyone on an open source basis. articles. recognises first name – last name Muru is being used in Next Media combinations, calculates the num- Metropolia University of Applied in a project for conducting con- ber of their occurrences and converts Sciences has developed the open tent-based book searches and re- the names to their basic form. Huhu source applications Juju, Huhu and trieving newspaper content from utilises a list of known names. Huhu Muru. Anyone can freely utilise these archives. As a recommendation tool, uses a list of known names when applications. Further information is Muru offers a solution to the so- processing texts – so will not recog- available at: called cold start problem, where new nize new or unknown names. https://code.google.com/p/juju/ content cannot be recommended to The Huhu tool has also been uti- https://code.google.com/p/huhu-p/ a previously unknown user. lised in the development of the Uni- Juju, Huhu and Muru have been Automatic keywords versity of Helsinki's automatic news published on an open source basis Juju is an application that automat- robot (see page 62). under the MIT licence. ically finds keywords from texts. Its You can test Huhu with your own – Olli Alm, Metropolia input data consists of documents material at: and the optimal outcome is a list of http://ereading.metropolia.f/JujuWeb/ keywords that describe the docu- people.html ment's content well. Juju supports Muru sniffs out similarities Finnish and English and can also re- Muru is a general-purpose similarity store inflected words to their basic search engine that can be used both form. to compare different characteristics The tool's functionality was tested found in content and retrieve simi- using articles from Sanoma Maga- lar items. zines. The keywords suggested by When applied to books, Muru can Juju were then compared to those for example be used to find reading put forward by an information spe- recommendations based on your fa- cialist. In one example, half of the vourite crime novel using search words suggested by Juju matched criteria such as the book's those chosen by the expert. themes and the This result can be improved by in- author's nation- creasing the size of the corpus used ality or profession. by the application. Keyword selec- With the help of rich tion works best for factual texts. For metadata, surprising fictional texts with ambiguous con- dimensions can be un- tent, automatic content definition is a covered from the con- challenge that is not suitable for the tent. keywording process as such. The central innovation of Using Juju does not require con- Muru is a multi-feature architecture tent training and the application that processes the material's differ- can be taken into use very quickly. A text keyworded with Juju that has been ent features as independent data modified with Tagul into the J shape Keywords can be useful in searches,

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 61 TECHNOLOGY Automatic news robot Corpus - a key In the ever quickening world of news report- for textual un- ing, monitoring online activity is a growing derstanding challenge that takes up a lot of time. Next Media has been developing an automatic Big data processing of news robot that filters through online con- textual content requires a tent and attempts to find information that large amount of textual is useful to the editorial team faster and material that is split into better. This also requires big data methods. parts and converted into a corpus, an image of lan- The tool being developed in the Software guage. This corpus is used Newsroom project is aimed at helping the ed- as a point of comparison itorial team with background work by comb- when new documents are Language used in online content must first be ‘trans- ing through online content in search of news- analysed. lated’ into Finnish in order to enable automatic pro- worthy discussions and their background - as cessing. Picture of an online service that was used to With the help of the well as finding links to relevant, related mate- get translations for over 5,000 slang words. corpus, meaning can be rial such as organisations, places and people. found from a new text: software. Online slang, for example,must With further development, this news robot what the text is about, first be translated into standard language. could even write articles automatically; there what keywords it holds etc. This translation project was carried out are already news writing applications for A corpus is typically made using crowdsourcing. Standard Finnish trans- structured information such as sports results. out of thousands of text lations were collected from online users for However, writing about freer topics requires documents. spoken language, dialect and slang utter- as much intelligence from the machine as For best results, the cor- ances so that the applictions would be able mechanically understanding the text, which pus needs to be wide-rang- to understand them. Each word was trans- makes it quite a challenge. ing and understand the lated by several people to obtain the best special characteristics Corpus from news agency STT and Metro possible correspondence. of the target content. The news robot's algorithms must be Even though the application cannot yet In information retrieval taught topics, words and connections. For write news articles independently, it can al- applications, the central this, STT's news archives and material from ready recognise trending topics in online dis- differences of texts can Metro newspaper were used. cussions and find related background infor- be highlighted when the One of the greatest challenges in its devel- mation. By combining these weak signals, the corpus is built from the opment has been that the language used in news robot can sniff out newsworthy topics documents of the result social media and discussion forums is worlds and different types of phenomena much ear- set itself. apart from the language used in news con- lier than we would normally become aware For example, in the pro- tent and general texts analysed by language of them. – Katri Grenman, VTT cessing of news articles, Next Media has used news agency STT's extensive news material archive for several years as well as content from local newspapers for local news. In other projects, magazine content is required. Similarly, if analysing the language used when talk- ing about society, then Wikipedia articles are an excellent source. Legal language, on the other hand, can be studied using the Finnish law. A beta version of the news robot with a search using proper names to find trending themes as well as links to the most recent online documents.

62 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 TECHNOLOGY pioneering the development of newsml

By exchanging planning data between organisations, predictive layouts can be made to automatically bring images and texts to their assigned spots. On the left, the article's elements are planned, in the centre a suitable layout is selected, and on the right, the layout is created automatically for the ﬁnished article.

Practical application of planning data between newspapers Te goal of the SuTi project has been to create standards for the exchange Automatically from of planning and content data. Tis has risen from the need to boost planning to layout news reporting at the national level as well as reduce overlap between Exchanging planning data between the publisher and the newspapers. external content producer reduces overlapping. When an Exchange of planning data has article is agreed on, the central information – length, images, been tested with Anygraaf's test graphics – are fed into the system in advance. When the system, but the goal is to create standardised solutions independ- article is delivered, the different elements have their slots ent of any specifc system. With this ready, and the ﬁnal layout only needs to be ﬁne-tuned. in mind, the NewsML standard – which is maintained by IPTC – was Hannele Antikainen chosen. Tis standard is ideal given the ease with which it allows users to In order to make editorial work tional circumstances, both with exchange data about news content. more efcient, news agency STT-Le- regard to STT co-operation as well Tis type of metadata enables the htikuva have studied the exchange of as other types of content acquisi- receiving party to deliver detailed planning data related to articles and tion. STT currently delivers plan- specifcations to the authoring party images between newspapers and ning information in the form of one – as well as to make use of planning other customers in the SuTi project. text document four times a day. data for example in layout automa- Finland is ahead of other countries During the development work, tion. in this kind of news planning. STT was in regular contact with Examples of planning data are IPTC (International Press Telecom- the article's point of view, types and Contributions to standards munications Council) and its mem- lengths of articles planned as well as Te SuTi project has developed the bers to ensure that national addi- information on illustrations. Con- sharing of future planning data actions and changes to NewsML are tent processes like this, which cross cording to the structured NewsML not in breach of the standard. Tey organisational boundaries, require standard. In addition to extending have also discussed the need for common rules to enable predictive, the standard, the project has also changes with IPTC on a wider scale. or even automated, layout. been developing an application for At the same time, system pro- In 2013, the SuTi project decided free-form information exchange that vider Anygraaf (see page 38) has to focus on image content – as can be linked to editorial systems. also extended its editorial system NewsML had not previously sup- This application also offers the with planning data management. A ported the delivery of images with possibility of giving feedback on non-system-specifc method of pre- planning data on a sufcient scale. plans. In this way the system can senting planning information was In addition to this, development support the newspaper's predictive developed alongside practices for work has been carried out in groups creation, which leaves more time exchanging planning data between related to content, technology and for fne-tuning and handling excep- editorial systems. business.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 63 JOURNALISM

open data as a power source Data journalism goes mainstream Database format data in articles gets a completely new meaning when new information is combined from large information masses and visualised inter- actively. When societal information becomes open, data journalism utilising it can A popular example of good data journalism, produce high quality content Esa Sirkkunen, Helsingin Sanomat analysis on governmental that is popular among University of Tampere, lobbyists. COMET readers.

While many Finnish editorial teams time spent with articles and diversi- supplemented with coders and vis- have made data journalism become fes the ways of expression available ualists. In large editorial teams such mainstream, others are still discuss- to journalists. Data journalism also as those of Helsingin Sanomat news- ing how and what types of data con- adds to the transparency of journal- paper and the public broadcasting tent to use. Tere is only a handful of ism, as the material on which the company YLE, the team's own re- data journalists in Finland but their article is based is ofen published sources are sufcient for carrying number is very much on the rise. so that anyone can check it. Tis in- this out, which leads to good results Te Tampere Research Centre for creases the public's trust in journal- and interested readers. Journalism, Media and Communica- ism. It remains to be seen how smaller tion (COMET) has conducted sev- Other companies might also be editorial teams are able to take on eral studies on data journalism with interested in the data material col- data journalism and whether pro- Next Media. The findings clearly lected by media companies, which duction companies focusing on data highlight that data journalism is can lead to fnancial gain. In addi- journalism will be created in the highly benefcial to media compa- tion, the media companies can uti- feld. However, training is required nies. Data journalism can be used to lise activity created around open even in larger organisations, as fnd and illustrate previously hidden data, such as by organising special investments are increasing and more news topics or societal processes and workshops (hackathons) to create and more journalists are specialising thus improve the quality of journal- new types of articles and important in data journalism. ism. contacts to experts in the feld. Open data as the starting point Interactive content Training is needed As per its name, open data is open – Online articles are ofen published Tere are also problems related to meaning free and unlicensed – data in an interactive format that invites data journalism. Editorial teams published by public administration readers to explore and try out new need more training and resources, or companies. Nordic legislation on content. Tis, in turn, increases the and the team of journalists must be the openness of information and the

64 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 JOURNALISM increasing use of open data has created a basis for new types of content Data journalism at Helsingin Sanomat in media, as well as services and new The practice developed and tested during the Next Media project felds of business based on them. led to organisational changes at Helsingin Sanomat. Data journalism is not the only A data desk was founded for the creation of data journalism. area where open data is used. For example, a new kind of ecosystem Esa Mäkinen, Helsingin Sanomat The HS data desk works on two has emerged in the largest cities principles: the unit both helps report- In 2013, many of the most popular ar- ers with data acquisition and analysis where the public and the private ticles on the Helsingin Sanomat web- and also conducts data journalism on sectors co-operate in creating better site were examples of data journal- the Internet's terms. The goal is to cre- services and business opportunit- ism. Career selection engine, name ate wide-ranging data-driven articles ies. These include Forum Virium engine and the municipality compar- as well as to publish articles and ad- in Helsinki and Open Data TRE in ison index all received a lot of atten- ditions related to current news events Tampere. tion. The report on Finnish lobbyists quickly. and reports on connections to tax ha- Another new feature is that act- vens were societally signiﬁcant. Speed is the key ivists interested in the openness of Data journalism, or journalism on Next Media focused its development data are standing alongside journ- the Internet's terms, made a break- on speed – seeking to provide quality alists to produce societally relevant through in 2013, when the Finnish visualisations of news applications. information. Broadcasting Company (YLE) founded For these news applications, the data According to experts interviewed its own data unit, and MTV3 an- desk has developed article templates nounced that its investigative team by the COMET research centre, that can be used to quickly create was to focus on data journalism. The when data is made open, special standard graphs, images, quizzes, ta- universities of Tampere and Jyväskylä bles, timelines and other similar data. attention should be paid to make it offer courses on data journalism, and When the editorial team or the data as clear, coherent, well-documented even universities of applied sciences desk comes up with an idea for a news and machine-readable as possible. are interested in the topic. application, it can be ﬁnished in less

than ﬁfteen minutes. The goal is that In search of new business models The editorial team's own data desk an idea can be developed into a ﬁn- The Helsingin Sanomat data desk Aalto University's School of Busi- ished article within one working day. ness has studied what kinds of busi- was founded in the summer of 2012. Its founding was preceded by devel- ness models can be used to enable opment work within the Next Media companies to work with open data, project. Helsingin Sanomat decided what kinds of challenges companies to conduct a year-long trial to see can face and what kinds of common whether data journalism functioned success factors can be identifed. in the predicted way and whether it Te team collected information would prove popular enough. The re- by interviewing companies utilising sults were positive and the unit was Esa Mäkinen, News Editor, open data as well as by conducting made permanent during the summer Data journalism, Helsingin Sanomat a case study on the local media in of 2013. Huittinen (see page 41). Companies are utilising open data working in this feld simply because in various ways – and together with they fnd it interersting Companies commercial sources. However, the face challenges such as the lack of data in itself is not valuable without knowledge on public administra- an application to refne and utilise tion, surprising changes in program- it. Business utilisation has thus far ming interfaces and the lack of fund- been scarce, and many companies ing to encourage development. are still searching for the best business models. In addition to media companies, there are many other links Not all application producers have in the open data value chain. Big data applications are not only found in newspapers, however, with bus timetables and been aiming to create new business map services being two other well-known examples. Tam- models – with some developers pere's Nysse application can be seen in the image.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 65 Digital newspapers and automatic layout Automatic content layout that is suitable for all devices requires a lot from both the system and algorithms controlling the layout. In Next Media's project, open source code methods for the automatic layout have been developed.

Hannele Antikainen, VTT

Layout automation begins with knowledge of the publication's content structure and the end result is a ready application either online or on a tablet.

Te Aalto University School of Sci- used when cropping images so that additional content linked to articles ence (Aalto SCI) has conducted long- they ft - in both landscape and por- – such as sidebars – can be treated as term research on how digital newspa- trait form - on the screen of devices independent, while also being linked pers and magazines could be made as such as an iPad. to the main article. easily as possible. Co-operation part- This helps with the automatic ners include e.g. Sanoma Magazines Recognisable content types layout of additional content on dif- Finland (SMF), Anygraaf, STT- A central part of modelling is dis- ferent devices. In addition to content Lehtikuva and Sanoma News. tinguishing between content and elements, the model also covered its manner of representation. Previ- issues related to the departmentali- Image colour palette and ously, this was carried out at Aalto sation of articles. importance mapping SCI separately for each publication Image analysis methods were devel- and project. Additional development Promising test results oped with applications such as col- was required to enable the use of the Automatic layout and image work- our palettes and importance map- same model in several publication fows were tested with the content ping. A colour palette can be divided channels. of Tietokone magazine. iPad content into two - both the image's main and Te goal of the study was to con- created using the Anygraaf layout background colours. Later, the image's struct a general content model for automation sofware was compared most saturated colours - or those clos- newspaper and magazine content that with content produced manually on est to the desired brand colours - can would also cover the requirements of the Woodwing application. In user be used in the layout in accordance digital publication channels. Similar tests, the test users did not notice that with e.g. the headline's style template. modelling-related requirements alos layout automation had been used. One of the applications of impor- apply to the exchange of planning Te publication platform of the tance mapping is to ensure that a data. During the project the content magazine with automatic layout headline that is placed on top of of over ffy Sanoma Magazines' pub- was a native iPad application called an image does not cover anything lications was analysed. Baker, which enables HTML5 based important, such as a person's face. The developed content model content to be shown. Te style tem- Importance mapping can also be is article-based, which means that plate it uses can be adjusted depend-

66 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 TECHNOLOGY

High quality resizing and cropping of images requires understanding of their contents. In the image you can see the different phases of the analysis that results in different size options and the colour of the title and the initial.

ing on whether the article contains conventional, printed magazine. Te application, which was also devel- images, videos or just text. printed magazine's graphic designer oped at Aalto SCI. It enables the also designed the style templates to same HTML5-based content to be Available for all be used with the automatic layout published online without the limi- Te same technology was also used of the digital magazine. Te concept tations of app stores. Stage Frame- when publishing the Aalto Univer- magazine is available at AppStore work was published under the MIT sity concept magazine - which was and online. licence, which means that all pub- actually produced in co-operation An alternative to the iPad appli- lishers can use it free-of-charge in with the same team that work on the cation is the Stage Framework web their commercial activities.

Image analysis and editing are key to automation

Layout automation for different types can also prove invaluable in processes ways. Aalto SCI also developed an of devices is highly challenging if the such as choosing colours for headlines image search tool based on previous user lacks the methods required for un- and graphics. The colour palette is also work. It was tested using an image derstanding images. Most images can useful in handling image archives. archive of 10,000 images. The search be automatically resized. Different ver- A photo's lifespan is extended if the is conducted using algorithms devel- sions are needed for vertical and hori- image archive can be utilised in many oped during the Next Media project. zontal displays, the table of contents requires a smaller size, and all of this might need to be redone for tablets and mobile phones. Resizing alone might not always be enough and images might also need to be cropped. This requires an understanding of the image's contents. Soft- ware must distinguish the important content from the less important so that cropping will not, for example, re- move a part of someone's face. Aalto SCI has been developing algorithms for this purpose to be used in layout automation. The same methods can also be used if headlines need to be placed on top of images. The headline must be placed so that it only covers the background of the image and not anything important. The ﬁrst stage of an image search involves using a keyword, after which Colour palette analysis can also be results can be whittled down by using information about colour, texture, beneﬁcial to layout automation – and layout or even the position in the image of the main subject.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 67 PROFILING portable profile Personalised and predictive services Portable proﬁle There is currently a strong platform and its components. User trend for services that take information can be into account or even predict obtained from social media services, man- user interests and current ually entered by the and future situations. They user and from service provider's systems. require a versatile user proﬁle that can be created from information on the use of several different applications – as well as basic information given by the user.

Sari Vainikainen An example of a recommendation TV guide, Helmet.f's feed on new VTT could be another album by the same videos for loan, Metro's news and artist or albums by other similar art- emergency call information. Next Media projects have devel- ists – or, alternatively, use keywords The Mediatutka prototype gave oped methods for focusing content and other information to ofer the recommendations as well as auto- and services based on a user-specifc user other related content. When matic alerts based on the user's loca- interest profle as well as place and keywords and data related to context tion and interests. Alerts were given context. Another crucial factor is are used in this set-up, then diferent about a range of diferent events - that of a user-controlled profle that services can understand the profle such as emergency calls near one's is portable between diferent ser- in the same way. home, StadiTV videos recorded near vices: the user creates and maintains the user's location or news articles. a profle in one place and can use Prototype application Additionally, one other interesting it or parts of it in diferent services VTT's profle service and its meth- application involved sending the based on the user's own preferences. ods have been applied to the Events user alerts about libraries near the and Mediatutka mobile applications user's location with videos for loan VTT's portable proﬁle to recommend different types of that might be of interest. Te VTT profle service developed in content such as magazine articles, Next Media research programme en- event information, television pro- Usable by third parties ables the creation, control and use of grammes, flms and news articles. Tird parties can use the user pro- portable profles. The aim of the Events project fles in their own services with the VTT's profile service has been was to create a multi-channel event user's consent. In addition, an inter- designed with methods for the information service prototype for face has been developed for REST semantic enrichment of content and mobile, online and digital televi- API – thereby making it easier to profile information. This involves sion interfaces. Te beta version of use third party applications to cre- frstly identifying both the keywords the Mediatutka application was create, oversee and update user profles. and the contexts in which these key- ated to support predictive services With the user's consent, the pro- words are used, and then using this and content recommendations from fle can also be created by analys- information to provide recommenda- several content sources: Forum Vir- ing the user's social media content tions tailored to the user. ium's StadiTV content, skimm.tv's on services like Facebook and Twit-

68 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 PROFILING

The Mediatutka mobile application gives recommendations on content based on the user's location and interests. It was also used to test the automatic delivery of emergency call information based on the current location or sites that are important for the user.

Event information application for mobile and can be modelled based on user infor- suited to the needs the development HbbTV environments. The application recom- mation. of services that are better suited for mended events based on time, location and user interests. In addition, the user could see Te more the user is able to take the needs and situation of the user. which events their friends are participating in. advantage of the same profle, the VTT's methods for semantic meta- more motivated they are to work data enrichment and recommenda- ter. Tis is made possible by taking on that profile, which, in turn, tions were successful in the inter- avantage of both manually entered makes it all the more versatile. Tis national MediaEval competition, keywords and ready-made role tem- is an advantage as versatile profles as they were able to fnd the most plates. Information related to one's make it easier to decide upon – adn events and related user images from family, career and other interests develop – services that are better the competition's content.

Anonymous and light recommendation system

VTT's patented UPCV (Ubiquitous random values. For example, when a UPCV recommendations can be used Personal Context Vectors) method is reader reads a news article, the sys- with any kinds of content or even light, is does not analyse but distrib- tem copies numbers from the news people, and random values can even utes random values between content article's random values to the user's be exchanged when people meet. elements and users, when the user store and vice versa. This type of recommendation is be- and content element meet. When there are enough of these neficial in many ways: the user does A recommendation application can events, the random values in the not need to enter clear user inform- be made in a heavy way by first analys- user's store begin to form a user pro- ation, only a set of random values ing content, logs and user activity and file influenced by all the services that that do not reveal the person's pref- then creating profiles for content and have been used. Similarly, the random erences. users based on this information. UPCV, values of a service or content are in- Next Media developed a small pro- however, does not maintain large da- fluenced by all the users that have gram, only 58 kilobytes in size, from tabases but it collects and stores data chosen them. UPCV to be used by media compa- that can be complemented with a pre- When arriving on a news site, the nies. This recommendation method determined set of random values. user's random values are compared has been tested in news services and In UPCV, each user and service – with those of all the news articles, and book clubs, where its impact appears or part thereof, for example a single recommendations are made based to be good. news article – has its own store of on the similarity of available articles. – Ville Ollikainen

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 69 Research and training.

With experience and ambition.

School of Communication, Media and Theatre, University of Tampere BUSINESS Aims are high in multimedia research

The digitization development has meant an increase in the number of media channels available. Marketers require information on the relationships between these channels – so that they can make informed business decisions. With this in mind, Next Media set itself the ambitious target of creating a common 'exchange rate' for the different media currencies.

Hannele Antikainen, Olli Kuusisto, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Media currency is a way of indicat- istic without a deeper understanding Progress in the Nordic countries ing the potential value of a given me- of overall media consumption. Anna Viljakainen of VTT has ana- dia's advertising space. In the case of According to the buyers of media lysed success factors and challenges newspapers, this value corresponds advertising, the need for a common related to the design of multime- to the number of readers, television currency is reduced as the productiv- dia studies in other Nordic coun- channels can calculate this fgure by ity and efectiveness of media adver- tries. Other Nordic countries have determining the number of viewers tising is measured with increasing ac- succeeded in developing studies for and with online services the number curacy by other studies and methods. local advertising markets where they of visitors to a given site. Combining Yet one should also be aware of combine the relative value of media these is much like comparing apples the challenges media research faces currencies in use in the sector with and oranges. – including the constantly changing qualitative information about the Te problem is that currency stud- nature of the media sector, the diver- media day of consumers. ies, such as the Finnish National Read- sifcation of media consumption – Viljakainen interviewed experts in ership Survey and the TV Audience as well as the expansion of the very the feld that had been involved in Measurement, are not comparable to defnition of what media is. By this, designing joint studies or had oth- one another. Uljas-Ahl refers to the wide spectrum erwise participated in the develop- Data collection is implemented of media that has emerged along- ment work within the sector. using diferent methods, and the stud- side traditional media. Increasingly, Te creation of multimedia sur- ies produce information in diferent the involvement of consumers takes veys requires cooperation – indeed cycles. Te Finnish media market has place via smaller and more targeted there is clearly a strong correlation four ofcial media currencies and also measures, which can not easily be between the development process a group of other signifcant media sur- included in intermedia surveys. and the individuals working on a veys that are used to purchase or sell given project. space in the media. Combining currency studies In the Mobime project, researchers Focus on the consumer Next Media's Mobime project tested the fusioning of data from Te media industry is shifing in- Te Mobime project explored op- Finnpanel's TV Audience Measure- creasingly towards service business portunities to develop an intermedia ment and TNS Gallup's TNS Atlas – with the aim of increasing compet- currency that would produce compa- survey. According to a heuristic itiveness. Consequently, studies that rable information on the reach of dif- study conducted by VTT, the Tech- shif the focus away from the media ferent media. According to Katariina nical Research Centre of Finland, itself and towards the consumer and Uljas-Ahl of Dagmar, the develop- TV viewing patterns could be pre- the role of the media in the daily life ment of joint currency for the pur- dicted based on data from the Atlas of consumers will increase their sig- chasing of diferent media is not real- study. nifcance.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 71 IN BRIEF

One day's activities of an individual consumer on the screen of a smart phone

AUTOMEX APPLICATION A diagram on the structure of a prototype system for measuring media consumption Context-aware monitoring of media consumption

The Next Media project has Tis system – called Automex – tomex can provide useful informa- developed methods fthat uses an application which analyses tion for the planning of new media don't only make the auto- the usage patterns of a mobile device concepts. – using data available to it to track The prototype has been tested matic monitoring of media whether the user is at home sleeping, alongside a consumer survey on use by consumers easier, on their way to work or somewhere local media use. Te main focus of but also provide informa- else – using which mode of trans- the survey lies in technical testing of tion about the context in port – at lunch or returning home. the prototype, but at the same time, Te device also allows for the recog- promising results were obtained on which the media are used. nition of the social context, i.e. other the efciency and accuracy ofered mobile devices nearby. On top of the by Automex. Ville Könönen, VTT Technical context element, there is a layer that Research Centre of Finland monitors the device's usege of dig- One of the pioneers of mobile mon- You only have to look around you to ital media. Use of other media can itoring of media use has been the see that pople are using digital ter- be reported via an electronic media UK-based company IPA TouchPoints, minal equipment more and more diary also provided by Automex. which collects information on the media use of consumers and its con- when accessing media. Traditional Useful analysis of the texts using a panel consisting of a methods of measuring media use representative sample of 5,500 indi- media day of consumers are no longer enough. Insted, a sys- viduals. Corresponding multimedia tem is needed that can register the Te automatically collected data can studies are also being carried out in use of digital media throughout the be transformed into graphic pres- the Nordic countries. day – while also seeking to incorpo- entations and analyses. Once the rate information concerning the use data on the daily routine of digital Mobile operators in Finland, too, have begun to conduct far more research of traditional media such as TV and media users has been processed, Au- on media use than the studies or- newspapers. ganised by media houses concerning A prototype for automatic moni- the use of own products. The latest toring was developed in Next Media example of this is the Street Talkers that also accounts for the context of mobile panel, which was designed by media use forms a comprehensive JCDecaux and the customer-insight picture of the media day of a con- agency Kopla Helsinki and launched in February. One of the advantages of sumer. It is based on efective com- a mobile panel is that, unlike a tradi- bination of data obtained from dif- tional consumer panel, it also reaches ferent sources. The typical routine of a test subject on a the consumers when they are out normal working day. and about.

72 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 IN BRIEF

Optimal viewer experience with Google Glass – 3D content In order to create a pleasant user a channel for experience, it is crucial to opti- mise factors such as the inter-ocu- the future? lar distance, i.e. the distance from the centre of one camera lense, or Smart glasses feeding digital information directly to eye, to another. The optimal value for this depends on the screen the consumer's field of vision are expected for con- technology in use and also exactly where the screen is being used. sumer use soon, with Google as one of the manufac- The optimisation is essential, as a 3D effect that is not significant turers. Such devices will be responsive to one's envi- enough brings no added value to the viewer and, in fact, a too ronment – with the content at any given time tailored large a shift in image perspectives may strain the eyes and appear to the location of the user. irritating to the viewer. The adjustment of depth or dimension The glasses will also know when not to provide is made possible by altering the distance between stereoscopic unnecessary content – with only the most essential cameras. information being provided for users on the move to ensure they do not become distracted. Aspects crucial Impacting the viewer's emotions for the success of a service provided for smart glasses In the Stereoscopic 3D project (S3D), the experience created by include the correct identification of the use situation three dimensionality was measured in different contexts of use: and resulting dynamic adjustment of the content. in movie theatres, homes and mobile use. The comparison of dif- For businesses in the field of media, smart glasses ferent situations is important because of the way that the per- offer a new way to reach and interact with their cus- ception of depth is altered when viewing distance or the size of tomers, and a means to provide them with a genuine screen is changes. sense of here-and-now. This enables them to mediate The perception of depth can be used to convey emotions and location-specific, real-time and personalised content the general atmosphere of the locations where the story takes that serves both advertising and journalism. place in a more effective manner. A central finding was that by The business around smart glasses requires a increasing the perception of depth, it is possible to improve the whole ecosystem – one containing the organization experience, particularly when using mobile devices with small that seeks to advertise, an advertising agency, a ser- screens. On the whole, the results indicate that the production vice provider, a technology supplier and a publisher. of good and cost-efficient content requires that 3D script cover- The strength of media companies lies in their local ing all device platforms is prepared alongside the actual script knowledge, an aspect around which smart glass ser- for the movie. vices must be constructed. In Next Media's Hyperlocal project, researchers Growing 3D market tested Google's smart glasses and explored possible The selection of devices for viewing 3D content available to con- earnings models for media suited for the product. sumers is expanding. The devices currently on offer include 3D televisions, video projectors and laptops - while experiments have also been carried out with tablets and smart phones. Onix 3D content is currently topical with a key role to play in the future of all forms of media, from movies and television to network describes and mobile equipment. Movies and game content are paving the books way for growth. Onix for Books is a widespread metadata can be customised to support organi- Onix messages across organisations by standard for describing and delivering sation-specific needs for managing spe- rules defined for each server. book related metadata. In the eReading cific subsets of the Onix model. The JOnix architecture provides a project, an open source delivery platform The server acts as a storage platform framework for managing Onix metadata JOnix was developed for managing and that also validates the data, keeps track in the cloud both for internal organisa- distributing Onix metadata. of changes made (versioning) by au- tion use and delivery between organi- JOnix consists of two parts: a web thorised users. In addition, a set of JOnix sations. The application has also been iclient (JOnix web app) and server back- servers can form a distributed server published as open source code under a end (JOnix platform). JOnix web app network for automatically delivering GPLv3 licence.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 73 INTHEME BRIEF

HTML5 in Next Media HTML5 is the latest version of the commonly used HTML markup language used to make web sites. HTML5 expands, improves and rationalizes document description language. It also intro- duces new Application Program- ming Interfaces (APIs) that can be used for complex web applications suitable for a variety of platforms. The research in the early stages of the Next Media project looked at whether HTML5 Augmented reality enriches would be able to implement similar web based experiences news and advertisements as native applications. As the re- VTT have worked together with a The city guide application was search progressed it was noted range of industry specialists to pro- tested in several stages. Te trials that HTML5 brought a range of duce the Mobile AR City Guide ap- showed that, in addition to enjoying benefits speeding up the pace plication. Tis new application uses the access to entertainment oppor- of application development, especially in platform independent the latest information from Metro. tunities that the app provided, users technology. f to tell the user all about the very also particularly valued feelings of The most significant features latest local news and events. Aug- control, success an togetherness. of HTML5 to come to light dur- mented reality technology is used It should also be noted that the ing the Next Media research pro- to create a link between the digital users said they benefted from using ject have included the separa- and the real world — in this case, the app in their spare time – with tion of content and appearance, news and event information may be information on local events and and the ability to make use of of browsed on a map, or directly visual- local businesses seen as a very useful local browser memory for offline ised onto the physical environment possibility. solutions. As web and JavaScript using a mobile phone camera. Tis have developed, we have also allows the user to experience the in- A capacity challenge seen results in the development of responsive layout. Several formation corresponding to where One of the main challenges facing applications have been imple- they are by actually seeing it with AR technology is that of ensuring mented with a view to tablets their own eyes. fast and reliable data tranfer. Be- and smartphones. cause the applications are used on One of the challenges regard- News on the map mobile devices, using the technol- ing newspapers is finding a bal- Te city guide application was de- ogy requires data transfer speed and ance between automated con- signed to help users fnd hyperlocal reliability from the mobile network. tent production and attractive events and services using augmented Te strengths of augmented real- layout. With regard to e-books reality. Additionally, the application ity in media applications are its play- HTML 5 has been used for devel- allowed the user to see where the fulness and unpredictability and the oping online reading programs. news events took place on the map. user interaction with technology. Alongside the ready-made news and Te applications are mostly free of events content, users were also able charge because they ofer advertis- to add messages and pictures to the ers an opportunity to get really close map themselves. to the consumers.

74 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 VIEWPOINT

The Straits of Messina is behind us!

the next media program was from the outset designed as a national, precompetitive, industry driven research and development venture that would produce tangible solutions for the industry as well as scientifc and academic results on an international, high level. Tis means that it was immediately doomed to navigate the narrow, foggy straits between Scylla and Charybdis – two horrible monsters with an insatiable appetite. On one side, there is the many-headed Scylla, the media industry, with a multitude of competing companies – each one eager to snap up every potentially useful scrap of research. Companies need results now, not in fve years, results that are very concrete and immediately monetizable, preferably also giving each participating company a com-

Nils Enlund petitive edge. Te companies will also do everything they can to make the project serve Professor Emeritus their own immediate needs and to hide the most useful results from others. And, if a certain researcher proves to be exceptionally competent, there will certainly be attempts to hijack her or him from the project.

on the other side, the program has to steer free from Charybdis. Te enormous gap of academia is able to completely swallow everything that comes in its way. It will take any idea, turn it into a four-year dissertation project involving diligent literature studies, theoretical and methodological investigations, careful empirical tests, thorough statisti- cal analyses and incomprehensible reports. When the original idea has passed the diges- tive system of the academic monster, out will come excellent new ideas and knowledge that most probably is not of any immediate use to the industry, and a few highly qualifed academic graduates that are not immediately employable. Of course I am exaggerating. Nowadays, most commercial companies understand the need for serious academic research where the results may be fully exploitable only afer many years. Likewise, most universities understand the need to work closely together with industry, producing both intermediate results concerning real problems as well as purely scientifc results.

still, balancing a large research program between the interests of industry and the After more than twenty ambitions of the academic world is no easy task. As academic coordinator of the Next years as media technology professor in Stockholm Media program, I have been able to observe this tightrope act at a close distance. And at KTH, and before that yes, it has been successful. Since the program was originally intended to primarily serve research director in Ger- many at IFRA, Nils Enlund the industry, it has sailed a course closer to Scylla than to Charybdis and has produced now spends his emeritus many concrete, useful results that have the potential to strengthen the Finnish media days in Finland as chief editor for a scientiﬁc mag- industry. Moreover it has also resulted in a number of high-level scientifc publications azine, Next Media's aca- and academic theses as well as in initiatives for further research and collaboration. demic coordinator and is a It has been good sailing. member of the Board for the Media Industry Research Foundation of Finland.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 75 TEACHINGTHEME

COLLEGES TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NEXT MEDIA

Aalto University students evaluate tablet heuristics for children's e-books. Peter Bagge from Otava was following the work. Teaching new skills Cooperation between academic researchers and business oratory provides equipment and does not only beneﬁt business community and research hundreds of applications for media efforts. Research questions relevant to business projects companies to use in service and product development. have also provided information that is valuable in higher Te visual side of digital publi- education teaching. Much of the most useful research can cations and their usability are key also lead to dissertation work. issues in their design and development. Te problem for media com- Merja Helle, Aalto ARTS; rials at places like Aalto ARTS, at panies is that there are not enough Matti Rossi, Aalto BIZ; the COMET unit of the Univer- graphic designers who understand Esa Sirkkunen, UTA COMET sity of Tampere and Aalto BIZ. It is the specifc nature of touch-screen also important to note the way that devices – namely the media prop- Te aim of universities and colleges such projects make it possible for erties, visualisation issues and user is to train professionals so that they researchers to work together – and experience involved. are in command of the latest knowl- this has been very much in evidence For this reason Aalto ARTS has edge available. Because Next Media's during Next Media. For example, the started courses for graphic artists work includes all the major Finnish Aalto ARTS courses in 3D flm pro- interested in designing digital pub- media companies and also consists duction arose with support from the lications and testing user experience. of future-oriented research, univer- Aalto University School of Science. Te frst courses began in spring of sities will also beneft in their teach- 2012 and the ‘Publication design ing from the information on new Graphic artist tablet for emerging platforms’ courses are media gained from the research re- design professionals a completely new education pro- sults. In Aalto ARTS the results of Next gramme. Tese courses – focusing Tese results have also played an Media programme have provided on publication design for e-reading important part in the appearance new opportunities for digital pub- devices – have been planned and of new courses and teaching mate- lishing courses. Te eReading lab- carried out by Next Media researcher

76 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 TEACHINGTHEME

and graphic artist Harri Heikkilä. and other educational establish- grammes at Aalto School of Business Te courses were attended by about ments. and at Hanken School of Economics. ffy students, mostly future graphic Te material follows data journal- Te open data business models artists. istic work processes: afer the intro- identifed during the project have The courses are divided into duction it moves onto working with been the subject of lectures on many three parts: design characteristics data step by step right up to the com- courses, e.g on economic informa- and principles of good practice for pleted story. Te material in each tion and sofware business courses touch-screen devices, practical pub- section contains a short introduc- at Aalto University. At Hanken lication design for diferent technol- tion to the topics well as examples School of Economics, open data ogies, and publication assessment. and links for self-study. research has been used for the Mas- Te components are largely based Te material also contains selected ter's degree level courses Databases on the experience gained and meth- instructions from Finnish pioneers and Decision Support Systems for ods developed in the Next Media in data journalism, sources in Eng- Business. project. lish and other web resources. Te In addition, some of the theses Te courses both evaluated and material was collated and produced produced during the project have developed publications for Otava, by Auli Harju. Te education mate- been used as examples in seminars Keskipohjanmaa magazine, WSOY, rial is being used in teaching jour- at both Aalto University and Hanken Sanoma Magazines Finland and nalism at Tampere and Jyväskylä due to their high quality. Kaleva. Te aim has been to give universities, in colleges and also on graduate graphic designers the basic data journalism courses at Otava Media as a living example tablet publication design skills from Folk High School. Te Department of Marketing at the widest possible perspective. One the Aalto University School of Busi- of the main aims of the course was ness has been involved in research- for students to learn to work in a ing new media consumer habits. platform-independent way, and the Some of the marketing studies are importance of navigation and usa- based partly on this and a total of bility in new publications such as fve courses with Next Media related e-books and dynamic newspapers content have been used in the study Data journalism course material is freely was taught. available to everyone at http://blogs.uta.ﬁ/ materials. Over 700 students have datajournalismi. studied on the courses. Study material The compulsory course on the on data journalism Open data used for teaching basics of marketing for all students Te University of Tampere's COMET Te Aalto University School of Busi- has used live case tasks based on research centre has published open ness has studied business mod- media transformation. In addition learning material based on the re- els based on open data in the Next the Business-to-Business marketing sults of the Next Media work on Media Hyperlocal project. Open course has used media industry rela- data journalism online. Journalism data research has been used on tions in order to better understand studies at university have also been Master's and Doctoral degree pro- network-based business. extended to include data journalism related study modules. Te material is freely available and intended for anyone who is interested – journalists, students and others interested in data processing, self-learning or as data journalism course support material. Te material is also used for teaching data journalism at various universities Aalto University School of Business analysis of open data business models.

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 77 TEACHINGTHEME Tablets in the classroom

Teachers think that especially the speed, dexterity and mobility of the tablets in the classroom are great advantages over the conventional computer lab concept. The camera is also important.

Tablets are interesting tools for educational use. In Espoo, school day independently with the primary school pupils experimented for a four-week assistance of technology. period with Samsung Galaxy Tablet devices during English Room for improvement language lessons. Based on the experiments carried out in Te efcient adoption of new tech- the Next Media project it was clear that both the pupils and nology is still based largely on in- the teachers have a positive attitude towards information dividual teachers' knowledge and technology and the utilisation of mobile devices. activity. Te teachers should be involved more broadly with new tech- Maija Federley interact with one another – some- nology and as early as possible in the Timo Kuula, VTT thing that was visible in the way they design and experimentation. helped and advised each other when Teachers' perspectives of online Te isolation of IT from the rest of using them. and ofine learning solutions was studying in hour long visits to sep- Using the tablets in diferent activ- studied by interviewing 15 primary arate computer classrooms feels un- ities – such as making videos – also and secondary schools teachers. natural for students. In their free proved not only popular, but also an For them, the most important time they have become used to using excellent way to improve the pupil's thing was the clarity, timeliness and devices whenever they need them. teamwork skills. Te mobility of the reliability of the learning materials. Taking fast booting and easy to devices in the classroom ofers fexi- use tablets into class instead pro- bility – making it easy for the teach- Study materials are key vides fexibility and better learning ers to take the pupil's diferent rates Educational Publishers hold a cent- opportunities. Te Internet is availa- of progress into account, for exam- ral position in relation to e-learning. ble, even if only for fve minutes just ple. It's serves no purpose to put a tablet for a specifc task at hand. Te teachers interviewed empha- in your pupils' hands if all they can sised the need to expand the learning do is surf the Internet. Easy and convenient environment to outside the school Educational material in digital Te devices are easy to use and excit- premises and into free time as well. form, however, is expensive. The ing for primary school pupils. Tese Pupils can study many of the things Finnish market is small and the devices also encouraged children to that are now being taught during the spectrum of devices is wide.

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Eskoensio Pipatti SHORT HISTORY Next Media 2009–2014 Next Media has been a research and development programme with no equivalent anywhere else in the world. All the major media companies, media technology companies and all leading media research organisations from one market area have joined forces to carry out pre-competitive, industrial research grammes run by the mobile oper- ish media sector’ in the spring of together. How has this ators were not necessarily the most 2009. been possible? efficient solution, even though Soon, companies under the lead- media and communications had ership of Finnmedia launched the Media research had been car- been seen as areas with preparation of the research agenda ried out in Finland before the similar aims and needs. for the media focused programme. It Next Media project. In the 2000s Tis led to the need to start was at this stage that the programme media companies were sought a media focused research acquired the name Next Media. to join technology research pro- programme within the ICT jects, but only to bring content to SHOK company Tivit. Tough demands the gadgets under development. The Federation of the Te next phase was to sell the idea Projects were mostly lead by re- Finnish Media Industry to Tivit, which was not easy, because search institutions or technol- (Finnmedia) have actively Tivit had very high requirements ogy companies, and they did not promoted development for its programmes. Afer several address media related research in the media industry and rounds of negotiation Tivit's Board questions. with Finnmedia playing fnally approved the Next Media pro- a key role in Next Media gramme in December 2009. Tis de- SHOK funding model with the launch of the cision was soon followed by similar Towards the end of the 2000s strategic research for the recognition from Tekes - with Next funding from the industry led media sector in 2008. In the Media receiving its frst funding for SHOK (Strategic Centres for Sci- industry strategy, compa- in April 2010. ence, Technology and Innova- nies jointly formed a vision Media companies' interest in the tion) programme was launched of the future for the indus- Next Media project was widespread. and Tivit (now called Digile) gave a try and the required steps towards While making the frst project plans, huge boost to the media industry by radical change. the management team received over providing the opportunity to carry Te frst report completed was, 30 proposals for research projects. out self-initiated research on the big- ‘Drivers for Change in the Media Funding levels for the frst year gest issues facing media sector. Industry’ and fnally the actual strat- were significantly lower than Programmes from previous years egy for the sector was published planned - so much so, in fact, that had showed that the research pro- under the title ‘Strategies of the Finn- over half over the proposals had to

NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 79 THEMENEXT MEDIA be set aside. In the fnal plan the 11 proposals perceived as the most important were given the green light. The project work involved 44 companies out of the 60 who would have liked to participate. 24 of these were SMEs. At the outset there were 11 research organisations involved.

Funding increases As Next Media's work gathered pace, Tivit – the driving force behind Next Media – was so impressed that it increased its funding. Next Media's funding rose from 3.8 million euros package seminars provide a means Next Media's management team enjoys a glass in the frst year to 5 million euros in for high level forms of cooperation of sparkling wine after Tekes announced fund- the second year – and to 5.5 million and dissemination of results. ing for Next Media. Pictured from left Eskoensio Pipatti, Anu Kankainen, Caj Södergård and Pirkko euros in the year three. In 2010, the eReading project Oittinen. Olli Kuusisto behind the camera. started from absolute zero: not a New structure single commercial publication was chain in the world and the new prac- In 2011, it was percieved that by available for any reading devices. tices have found a foothold overseas, having 11 separate projects, Next The research carried out by Next including in Montreal and Prague. Media's work appeared somewhat Media, together with the testing of fragmented. As a result, the projects the prototypes and the experiences The story continues ... were grouped into three project clus- gained with new information tech- SHOK programmes typically last for ters. In 2012, Next Media was struc- nology and media – have inspired four years. Next Media's story does tured around the following three companies to publish hundreds of not end there. clustered business areas: eReading, newspapers and magazines as ser- Finland's experienced consortium Personal Media Day and Hyperlocal. vices for digital terminals. Tere are is in the process of building Nordic Pre-competitive cooperation has now over 2,500 eBook titles. Next Media, which will involve col- continued in the Next Media pro- In the Hyperlocal project, HS laboration between Swedes, Nor- ject and the programme has devel- Kaupunkilehdet (now called Metro) wegians and Danes. Elsewhere col- oped processes for cooperation. Tis concluded that the use of resources laboration is happening with the is seen in the way that sub-projects could be reduced by 30% thanks newspaper organisation WAN-IFRA are small ecosystems of enterprises to the new research results. Metro where we are broadening our coop- and research institutions, and work belongs to the largest newspaper eration on a European level.

Next Media's structure 2010-2011. More than 30 proposed projects had In 2012 and 2013 Next Media's rogramme structure crystallized to be reduced to a ﬁnal eleven for the project. The work packages were into three business project areas, or work packages, and the formed from the four research themes. number of research themes decreased to three.

80 NEXT MEDIA 2010–2014 THEME AIHEEN NIMI TÄHÄN TULEE

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