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The transformation of the media has continued for two decades, which is the entire duration of the triumph of the in- ternet. It affects all forms of media but in different ways. The phenomenon also varies by market area but the common factor in it all is digitalisation. The last stage in the media production chain is digitalisation of distribution. Earlier stag- es, such as text and lm production, have long been digital but this has not been directly visible to the consumer.
It should be noted that text, photographs and lm have also been edited before but digitalisation has both enabled a huge, hundredfold leap in productivity and opened up completely new opportuni- ties for editing. Opportunities that would have earlier been impossible to realise as regards production, technology or nanc- ing. In the mid-1990s when I requested quotes for a 3-minute topical animation for YLE, the Finnish national broadcast- ing company, such animation would still have cost €15 000. Today, it would only cost a fraction of it.
COMPETENT WORKFORCE IS SCARCE
With the increase in productivity, pro- duction costs have slumped and the consequences are diverse: now that own- ership of production equipment or the possibility for a long-time commitment to an activity i.e. capital is not a decisive issue, talent determines much more than previously. The boundary between pro- fessionals and amateurs has long been exible and the threshold for entering the eld has become a lot lower. Conse- quently, of course, not all of those who wish to make a living in the eld of media will not be able to ful l this wish.
Business management skills, networking and other principles and laws in the world of work and economy play a more impor- tant role. Those who have operated in the eld longer must also invest considerably more in maintaining and developing pro- fessional competence, as both new equip- ment and new technical standards are introduced with increasing speed. It is not
possible to know whether a novelty is just a momentary hit or whether it might become a norm that must be mastered in a year's time. Therefore, in both large and small me- dia companies, more intensive renewing of equipment and professional competence constantly consumes some of the gained improvement of productivity.
The most competent workforce is still scarce because, in the end, there is only a limited amount of talent and skill – as competition becomes more international this fact becomes more and more em- phasised in a small country like Finland. Even those who can make their living, of- ten have untypical employment contracts or operate like entrepreneurs, i.e. receive their income from several different sourc- es. Freelancing as such is not a new in- vention in the eld of media, entertain- ment and culture. It is even required in many production structures because a large proportion of operation in this eld is carried out as projects and produc- tions. The talent that is xed to individ- ual projects is given requirements, which may be impossible to implement with xed employment contracts – and the best talents are wanted in many places.
TECHNOLOGY CHANGES THE WAYS MEDIA IS CONSUMED
The key contributor in the digitalisation visible to consumers is the increased speed of network connections, which makes it possible to download heavier contents to computer terminals faster. At the same time, the usability of these contents has also improved signi cantly. Along with the Web 2.0 stage, which is roughly the past ten years, ndability and interactivity of these contents are also signi cantly better than during the rst ten years.
Earlier, Finns bought a new television set on average every seven years and, in addi- tion to a couple of magazines and the year- ly subscription for the regional newspaper, it was one of the most signi cant single investments in the media. Today more in- vestments are made in devices and the in- vestments are more frequent: people want to consume the same content seamlessly
using various terminal devices. It is possi- ble to start reading an article in a printed version of the Helsingin Sanomat newspa- per, continue reading it online and nish reading the article on a smartphone. From the media producer's point of view, none of these can be skipped but ndability, availability and the price must be accept- able in all environments. Price also means the price which the consumer is prepared to pay compared with the other content on that terminal device. A yearly subscription for a newspaper is not expensive when its quality is compared with the other con- tent that oods in through the letter box. But the price of a digital newspaper may still seem expensive because the reference points on the screen are entirely different.
As regards media producers, one of the biggest questions in the transformation of the media is how existing customers can be kept using the old equipment and how, at the same time, cost-effective invest- ments can be made in something new; in other words to ensure that the transition from one platform to another is carried out in a controlled way. Payment walls have been introduced in Finland in the past ve years and the established large media brands seem to have found well-working solutions. Consumers also understand that not everything can be free of charge but consumers' willingness to be exi- ble with prices in a digital environment seems much lower than in the old world. Therefore, almost all media houses that are struggling with transition questions worry about their pro tability, although the number of their digital customers has developed in a promising direction.
THE MEDIA'S TRADITIONAL EARNING LOGIC
The media's traditional earning logics has two signi cant characteristics which make the eld different from other sec- tors: portfolios and nancing through ad- vertisements.
PORTFOLIOS
Because determining demand in the eld of media is very dif cult and depends on
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