EN
HR
Spring is once again the golden season for popular sports leagues. Led by ice hockey, the fate of the Finnish Championship medals will first be decided, followed by the World Championship tournament at the end of May—once again taking place in Stockholm.
Finland comes to a standstill to follow sports and enjoy the insights of commentary virtuosos as well as the analyses of sports journalists across various media platforms.
What all this has in common is that sports stories are among the most read and most viewed content in the media. Quality sports journalism and commentary are in record-high demand by every metric.
At the same time, the Finnish Sports Journalists Association has received inquiries from across the country about media companies reducing the number of full-time sports journalists. As a result, the number of sports stories has also declined, as they are not being commissioned from freelancers either.
Media companies would do well to recognize the fact that it is precisely sports content that attracts readers and viewers to their platforms. Sports stories are the most consumed pieces in the media and, as such, generate the coveted clicks used to prove to advertisers that their content is engaging and worth investing in.
Sports content brings significant revenue to media companies—shouldn’t this be reflected in greater investment in sports journalists and sports reporting? Fortunately, some media houses do acknowledge this.
As of early March, the Finnish Sports Journalists Association had approximately 750 members, a number that has clearly increased over the past month. Roughly speaking, about two-thirds of the association's members are freelancers. The association strives to do everything it can to ensure this skilled group continues to have job opportunities in the future.
Experienced sports journalists—whether permanent staff or freelancers—are one of the most important assets of any media company. At the same time, it is essential to ensure that young and ambitious journalists entering the field are given opportunities to prove themselves.
Social media is increasingly challenging traditional media. I have discussed this topic with Gianni Merlo, President of AIPS, and the heads of the Nordic sports journalists' associations, and the trend is already clear. More and more sports journalists are producing content for their own platforms or in collaboration with sports federations. For example, the Swedish Olympic Committee even hired a popular TikTok influencer to create content for the Paris Olympics.
The same trend is happening in Finland. In fact, this development is already underway—some individual journalists' personal websites are attracting impressive readership and, through partnerships, also generating incomes. Major sports federations have also clearly raised their media profile and are increasingly working with freelancers, as the Swedish example shows.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and major federations like World Athletics (WA) and FIFA are considering issuing special accreditation passes to social media influencers, allowing them to report directly from major sporting events.
The board of the Finnish Sports Journalists Association fully supports the efforts of AIPS to extend accreditation rights—under proper guidance—to social media influencers who are members of national sports journalists' associations. The practical implementation of this system remains undecided, but I have proposed that these accreditation applications could be processed through the national associations. This plan will be discussed further at the upcoming AIPS annual congress in May.
AIPS Media, Jari Porttila Chairman of Finnish Sports Journalist Association
