NEWS ANALYSIS: When the editor became the story

By Jouni Tervo
     
      We generally know rather little about the ownership of the media, about how decisions are made, about how it is influenced and who does the influencing.
      Outside of the newsrooms themselves, with only a few exceptions, not even those who decide the editorial policy of the various media outlets are recognised figures.
      There is an established belief in the branch that its own doings do not really interest the general public.
      For this reason the media do not generally go around justifying their actions, unless there is some sudden pressing need to do so because of exceptional circumstances.
     
The "brand-recognition" of journalists began as a process decades ago in the electronic media, then spread to the magazines, and ultimately trickled down to newspapers.
      At the same time, media decision-makers and power-brokers still prefer to lurk behind the curtains and operate as grey eminences.
      Rather than using direct influence, editors-in-chief hover on the fringes of economic and political power, listening in for signs of how one is supposed to think about things.
      The contents of the clandestine background discussions, info briefings, and confidential chats that are part of the everyday round of media leaders are not divulged even to one's own reporters, let alone to the wider public.
     
The editors-in-chief of the daily newspapers have grown accustomed to staying in the background.
      Yes, some do write under their own byline, but a great many more content themselves with anonymous forays into print in the editorial columns.
      If the public at large were to be asked to name some of the media managers, the list would be a short one, even if it is the lines drawn by precisely these unknown hands that shape our picture of what is going on around us.
     
This newspaper's long-serving editor-in-chief Janne Virkkunen (appointed in 1991) is one name that might ring a bell, and perhaps the same could be said for Matti Apunen at Aamulehti in Tampere or Risto Uimonen, the editor of Kaleva in Oulu.
      Of those editors now retired, Kari Hokkanen (formerly of Ilkka in Seinäjoki) or Erkki Laatikainen (editor-in-chief of Keskisuomalainen in Jyväskylä for more than 30 years until August 2008) may be remembered.
      In the case of the two young lions who replaced them - Matti Kalliokoski and Pekka Mervola - the chances are people would have a good deal more name-recognition difficulties.
      Few know even who it is who lead the newsdesks at the Finnish News Agency (STT) or in the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), regardless of the fact that these two gentlemen are immensely influential in shaping how we see the world on a daily basis.
      Mika Pettersson (STT) and Atte Jääskeläinen certainly have no qualms about mixing it in the corridors of power, but they steer very clear of stepping into the limelight as the makers of news policy.
     
So much for the present. The situation may nevertheless be changing.
      The kerfuffle surrounding Alma Media's appointment of an editor-in-chief for Lapin Kansa in Rovaniemi threw up the importance of the person at the helm and his or her character.
      Others besides Johanna Korhonen may soon have to come out of the figurative closet.
      The treatment of Korhonen demonstrated that the search for someone to head a newspaper is no longer only about competent journalists but a quest for people who can handle the financial side of things, keep interest groups happy, and also give the newspaper the right sort of face.
     
In spite of this, in all quietness there have been individuals appointed to such positions, heading even some of the more important media outlets, about whom people in the business or outside it know next to nothing.
      The power in the selection process has slipped gradually into the hands of headhunters who know the branch only sketchily, and whose decisions are not spoken about openly either before or after the appointment is made.
     
Own goals and miskicks are beginning to be more of a rule than an exception.
      For example, Finland's third-largest daily by circulation Turun Sanomat managed to recruit an unknown miltary historian before it was noticed that his ability to do the job was hampered by alcohol.
      The editor-in-chief of Länsi-Suomi in Rauma was let go in the middle of his probationary period, barely six months after his appointment.
      Lapin Kansa has not been able to find a suitable candidate for nearly a year.
     
And yet it is not as if the interest in such positions is not there. Around thirty put themselves forward for the editor's job at Kaleva in Oulu, from among whom the psychologists will pick out the person they think is most competent.
      Salon Seudun Sanomat (based in Salo) announced just yesterday that they had appointed Jukka Holmberg as their new editor-in-chief after a lengthy search.
     
When power in the Finnish media changes hands, old practices could be cleared out at the same time.
      The media could admit that they have a public face, just as is found in politics, in public administration, or in the world of business.
      Nobody is looking to get camera-hugging celeb editors, but might not the new generation of editors-in-chief finally shrug off the traditions of their forebears and be more open to answer for what the media does and leaves undone?
      If transparency seems to be winning the day in an institution that is a citadel of conservatism like the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, then it is a wonder if the same sort of change does not gradually reach into the media, too.
      Alma Media have already proved the point: an editor can become the story.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 14.10.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Sacked editor plans to demand significant damages from Alma Media (7.10.2008)
  COMMENTARY: The dumb and the mean-spirited (7.10.2008)
  Outgoing Lapin Kansa editor to take leave until retirement, Alma Media CEO refuses to go (6.10.2008)
  Nine out of ten residents of Finnish Lapland would accept a lesbian newspaper editor (13.10.2008)
  Lapin Kansa journalists demand resignation of Alma Media CEO and paper´s editor (3.10.2008)

Links:
  Alma Media press release: RECRUITMENT OF THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF LAPIN KANSA TO CONTINUE AT ALMA MEDIA