Talentum
Talentum specialises in publishing directed towards professionals. The core of Talentum’s publishing operations is products and services directed towards professionals: magazines, books, events, trainings and electronic information services.
Talentum’s competitive environment is dispersed and made up on a media and service-specific basis of companies that provide similar products for professionals.
Talentum’s publishing competitors in Finland are Sanoma and Alma Media in magazine publishing, and WSOY and Edita in book publishing.
In Sweden, Talentum’s publishing competitors are Bonnier and Schibsted.
Media markets
Economic and professional media publishing operations and services are being shaped by the general trends in the media sector, such as digitalization as well as the fragmentation of both the media and the readership. Publishers are focusing on electronic information transmission in order to reach readers and customers in the channels that best serve them. The competitive advantage of printed periodicals is the added value they bring to news coverage.
The total number of readers and viewers of media has increased. Specialist magazines, in particular, have increased in popularity. Only a part of those using magazines and online media are active followers of both. Most follow either magazines or online media.
E-business
The Internet plays a significant role as a news medium and means of communication. Online media advertising and the amount of online media will increase year-by-year both in the Nordic countries and throughout the world. The overall number of readers has grown and, all in all, more time is being spent on following the media. The amount of content produced by users and various communities is continually increasing.
Searching for information has also moved to the Internet. There is a massive amount of information on the web, and an individual person can find it hard to evaluate its quality and reliability. Reliable web-based and print media help to select and analyze information.
Media advertising in Finland and Sweden
Advertising makes up a significant part of the media business.
Advertising markets in Finland
TNS Media
intelligence »
Advertising markets in Sweden
Institutet för Reklam- och
mediestatistik » (Institute for Advertising and Media Statistics)
Sveriges
Mediebyråer »
Book markets
The total sales in Finland’s book market have grown steadily over the last few years. The printed non-fiction share of the book market has slightly declined over the past years. The reduction has been concentrated mainly on encyclopaedias and large illustrated books, and not really on professional literature. The number of recorded books and non-fiction books in digital format is growing, but there is no sign yet of a breakthrough in electronic books in the near future.
Book markets in Finland
Finnish Book
Publishers Association » (Suomen Kustannusyhdistys ry)
Training and events
The number of players in the training sector in Finland has been growing. Because of better content customization than previously, seminars, fairs and events are continually increasing in popularity. Online studying is developing continuously, but for the time being, it is still a small-scale commercial business in Finland as elsewhere.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is a growing sector. Companies engaging in it range from those in consumer markets to financial institutions. Data protection legislation, the availability of registers and data accuracy all have a particular influence on the functioning of this sector.
Seasonal fluctuation
The media and media service markets are subject to seasonal fluctuation, and business is most active during the final quarter of the year.
Talentum’s magazines and books do not usually appear in the summer holiday season between midsummer and the end of July. Media sales customers typically make most of their purchases during the last quarter of the year. Because of the particular features of these sectors, Talentum’s quarterly net sales, and particularly its profitability, can fluctuate significantly.
As a result of the strong seasonal fluctuation in publishing, and particularly in the book business, most of its net sales, and an even larger part of its profits, accrue in the second half of the year. This is the largest factor explaining why most of Talentum’s profits are made in the second half of the year, and profitability is expected to develop more so at the end of the year than at the beginning of the year.
