Helsingin Sanomat online service chalks up ten years on the Net
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Helsingin Sanomat's online service, HS.fi, marks up 10 years this week. The service was actually opened on May 17th 1996, but the anniversary is being celebrated today, Friday.
In its earlier incarnation as Verkkoliite, the online service began life as did most other media portals, by publishing the contents of the newspaper more or less verbatim on the Internet.
"At the beginning we simply shovelled content up onto the Net without really thinking much about how well it worked in the new environment", says HS.fi's head of development Pekka Pekkala.
Soon, however, the online media began to take on a shape and a feel of its own. Rapid technological advances, including faster connections and more powerful PCs on the users' desks, allowed for new types of content. One example was the complex multimedia "Webortages" that required Flash plug-ins, and which occasionally took on hot topics, including liposuction.
At the same time, the site itself underwent more facelifts in ten years than most cosmetic surgery clients in a lifetime: in the past decade the service has gone through five more or less comprehensive layout revisions.
Verkkoliite's greatest moment on the news reporting front came in 2001 during the most frenzied period of the Lahti ski-doping scandal. While other electronic media were still looking for clues, Helsingin Sanomat's online pages had already listed the names of those Finnish athletes caught doping at the Nordic Skiing World Championships.
A slightly less illustrious incident took place in 2005, when the news of the Pope's demise was accidentally released on the world somewhat before it was due. The premature reference was picked up quickly by other media before it could be withdrawn.
In recent months, Helsingin Sanomat has added a number of blogs to its online service, in which journalists write about subjects close to their heart in a fashion that would not be possible in the print paper.
"The blogs are an important means of increasing the interactive and 'community' aspect of the site. They also allow for direct feedback to the journalists and make for a deeper relationship with the readers", argues Pekkala.
The International Edition went online as part of the service in September 1999.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 19.5.2006 - TODAY |
 Helsingin Sanomat online service chalks up ten years on the Net
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