Finland's oldest newspaper archive is in Swedish

By Lars Ørhøj | Mar 03 2014

The newspapers Vasabladet and Österbottens Tidning have just launched Finland's oldest digital archive, which features issues dating as far back as 17 May 1856 and all the way up to today.

The Swedish-language dailies have covered world history's greatest events and local stories, and now Vasabladet and Österbottens Tidning are available digitally for all to see.

Over the last five years, several hundred thousand pages of history have been scanned and are now available for readers, who can search through the articles and read them on their PCs or tablets.

"With the archives we expect to have a new source of digital income and to strengthen our local brands. At the same time, it's a good tool for our own journalists," says Patrik Pada, in charge of digital business development at HSS Media, the company that publishes the two newspapers.

Archive access has not been included in the newspaper's traditional subscription packages. Today, though, readers can purchase a separate archive subscription to be able to search through and read past issues. The supplemental cost is EUR 4.90 for 24 hours of access, or EUR 19.90 per month.

HSS Media's digital archive was developed in partnership with Visiolink.

Vasabladet, which is Finland's second-oldest newspaper, was founded in 1856 as Wasabladet. Today, it is the country's largest Swedish-language newspaper and has a daily circulation of 19,817.

Österbottens Tidning (ÖT) was founded in 2008 following a merger between the local newspapers Jakobstads Tidning (originally founded in 1898) and Österbottningen. The newspaper has a daily circulation of 13,901.


Lars Ørhøj

Author

Lars Ørhøj

Lars is Visiolink's Chief Marketing Office and an avid a cappella singer in the world acclaimed Danish choir Vocal Line. He has been a part of the media world for over 30 years.