Aller Media to shed up to 70 jobs

OHMYGOSSIP — The Finnish affiliate of the Copenhagen-based Danish media empire may shutter a teen magazine and a call centre. Aller is cutting up to 70 jobs in Helsinki and Rovaniemi, Yle mediates.

Aller Media said on Monday that it will begin redundancy talks involving all its employees in Finland except those working for Oma Aika (‘Your own time’), a magazine aimed at readers over 50 that was launched last spring, and the popular online discussion site Suomi24, which the company bills as “Finland’s largest online community”.

The firm says that talks may lead to the closure or sale of Miss Mix, a monthly magazine aimed at teenage girls, as well as Aller’s telecentre in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland.

Aller Media Finland’s CEO, Pauli Aalto-Setälä, blamed the need for layoff on declining media sales and magazine circulations. Media sales are down by nearly a quarter since a year ago, while circulation has slipped by 3.5 percent.

“Readership is also down because of the increase in VAT on Finnish magazines,” says Aalto-Setälä. “The prognosis for ad sales in the sector is weak for the rest of the year, since the nation’s economic indicators are in the red.”

Aalto-Setälä, 47, has helmed Aller since 2009. He’s a former editor of the tabloid Iltalehti as well as the Christian magazine Kotimaa, and has also worked for commercial TV channels MTV3, Nelonen and Sub as well as Yle’s Radio Suomi.

Aller Media, which entered the Finnish market in 1992, publishes the magazines Seiska, Katso, Koti ja keittiö, Fit, Elle and Miss Mix.

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