Synopsis: Newspapers are widely read in Europe not only because of their rich, diverse and pluralistic content but also due to the fact that for many of the hundreds of millions of daily readers in Europe newspapers remain the most reliable and preferred source of news.
Quite often newspapers also provide other media the most important discussion topics of the day. One need not to look any further than the morning shows in television: many of the newsworthy items are drawn from the daily newspapers.
Reach of newspapers remain high among the Europeans. Paid-for newspapers circulation has dropped during the last five years with approximately five percent. However, papers distributed for free for commuters and other news-hungry citizens has actually increased the total number of daily readers.
Online versions of newspapers have tens of millions of daily unique visitors. Newspapers online in many European newspaper markets are the most visited sites.
The presentation will explain what the current trends in the press are both from the point of view of developments in the media markets and also from the perspective of EU's public policy.
Valtteri Niiranen has been Executive Director of the ENPA – European Newspaper Publishers’ Association since 2004.
Prior to joining ENPA, he worked for 4 years as Director of Legal and Public Policy Affairs at FinnMedia (Finnish Media Confederation) and for 4 years as Legal Counsel for associations representing newspapers, magazines and periodicals, books and printing industry. At the beginning of his career (1992 – 1996) Niiranen worked in a distinguished law firm, a district court as well as in a department of the Finnish government.
Valtteri Niiranen is a Finnish citizen and has an Executive MBA degree from IE Business School (Madrid), Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Georgetown University Law Center (Washington D.C.), a post-graduate LL.M. from the University of Helsinki (Finland) and a LL.M. from the University of Lapland (Finland). He has authored or co-authored several academic/non-fiction textbooks e.g. on copyright legislation and media regulation, and is a regular columnist and a speaker at seminars and conferences.
