Significantly improved result in book publishing

Otava’s book publishing business achieved a significantly better year-on-year result in 2023. Otava Publishing Company’s direct operating profit totalled EUR 10.4 (6.3) million. 

In general literature, net sales of printed books decreased on the previous year, while slight growth was seen in digital sales. People are now using their time in different ways, and we are not spending as much time reading printed books as we did during the pandemic years.

In 2023, more than half (692) of the books published by Otava’s publishing houses were in printed format, compared to 1,179 digital books. The growth in sales of e-book subscription services has levelled off in general literature. About half of net sales came from digital books. 

The Finlandia Prize for children’s and young people’s literature was won by Magdalena Hai with her book The Horned God. It is the chilling horror story of a teenage boy whose life is changed by a car accident. The Horned God also won the public vote. The musician and artist Herra Ylppö, who chose the winner, was particularly impressed by the book’s atmosphere and how well it sucks you into the story.

The quality of Otava’s publishing programmes was reflected in the Finlandia Awards: all of Otava’s publishing houses had titles nominated in every category. 

Niko Hallikainen won the Kalevi Jäntti Foundation’s literature prize for young writers with his novel Big Wet Secret.

The uncertain state of the world has created new demand for popular literature, which is very much in vogue globally. Readers are yearning for fun and laughter. Audio and eBook services have also introduced new readers to popular literature. Digital books have lowered the threshold for trying out a new title or genre. Series make ideal audiobooks, as an author’s entire oeuvre is easily accessible. Popular literature and thrillers are often streamed for many hours on end. After listening to the first part, it’s easy to stream the whole series.

The uncertain state of the world has created new demand for popular literature.

Appreciation for popular literature has also clearly risen compared to the 1980s. Although translations of foreign-language books have often sold better than domestic ones, the popularity of Finnish popular literature has risen in recent years.

 Romantasy is the biggest new phenomenon to appear in the book market for a long time. Thanks to readers and fans, a genre that once consisted of individual cult titles has now gained mainstream popularity and a rapidly growing readership, especially among young adults.

Romantasy is a type of escapist fiction that obeys the laws of romance and relationships, but has fantasy elements that enable more convoluted plot twists than in the real world. A strong fan culture, particularly on social media, is a big part of the romantasy phenomenon.

Otava Book Printing’s net sales and operating result decreased on the back of a fall in volumes.  Otava Book Printing produced 4.2 (5.1) million books in 2023. 

Digital sales drive growth for Otava Learning

2023 was an excellent year for Otava Learning financially. Both its net sales and direct operating result improved on the previous year.

Growth was generated by digital sales in particular. Year-on-year digital sales have increased in upper-secondary learning materials in particular, and already account for 80 per cent of upper-secondary school sales. Otava Learning has invested in digital skills and platforms, and this hard work is now paying off.

Learning materials have a huge social impact. This is something that Otava Learning has always communicated, but the responsible nature of our work is now being highlighted. Diversity, equality and inclusion are strongly reflected in the design of Otava’s learning materials. Our goal is for all types of learners to be able to identify with the characters they encounter in learning materials.

For example, the diversity concept in the new Skylight material for primary school English is expressed thought plots, characters and illustrations. One of the main characters has parents with different ethnic backgrounds, and another main character has a toy with one arm.

In autumn 2023, Otava Publishing Company and Otava Learning launched the national Tähtipöllö (Star Owl) reading competition for primary school classes.

Literacy, changes in reading habits among children and young people, and Finnish schools’ PISA results have been repeated topics of discussion in Finnish classrooms, homes and the media in recent years. In autumn 2023, Otava Publishing Company and Otava Learning launched the national Tähtipöllö (Star Owl) reading competition for primary school classes. This competition was a way of taking concrete action to encourage schoolchildren to read more and thereby improve their reading skills.

 The winning class read a total of 2,394,870 pages. The students who entered the competition read an amazing total of 18,338,041 pages. The Star Owl competition will be inspiring primary schoolchildren again soon when it returns in autumn 2024.

Location is increasingly important in the book trade

The book trade suffered from low consumer demand during 2023. Consumer confidence indicators remained extremely low in Finland and people were very unwilling to spend money. This also affected Suomalainen Kirjakauppa’s sales,and net sales decreased by three per cent on the previous year.

However, the year-on-year direct operating result improved significantly thanks to restructuring.

Although Suomalainen Kirjakauppa’s online sales increased considerably during the pandemic, post-pandemic consumption habits have changed and online sales have fallen. Areas with heavy pedestrian traffic are the best locations for stores. Major cities (such as Helsinki, Turku and Tampere), and especially shopping centres, are good locations for businesses. The Helsinki Airport store has also been reopened now that tourism has recovered. Customers in smaller municipalities have to travel longer distances to their nearest store, and are therefore thinking more carefully before heading to the shops.

Areas with heavy pedestrian traffic are the best locations for stores.

Suomalainen Kirjakauppa had 58 stores at the end of the year.

Sales of fiction increased in 2023, but demand for non-fiction fell. About fifty per cent of Suomalainen Kirjakauppa’s sales consisted of book products.

December is the most important season for bookstores and Christmas sales went fairly well in 2023, although a strike in the middle of the month affected people’s mobility and consequently also sales.

Providing personalised customer service is even more important during the Christmas season. Customers will be asking for more recommendations than usual, so sales personnel must be aware of the year’s bestsellers. In addition to giving recommendations in person, salespeople also insert recommendation slips into books and games. These slips provide good tips for customers while also saving time.

Collaboration yields good results at Otavamedia

Otavamedia performed well financially in 2023 in spite of the difficult market situation. The company’s direct operating profit totalled EUR 11.0 million.

A legislative amendment in early 2023 means that any magazine subscriptions sold over the phone must now be confirmed later in writing. This took a chunk out of consumer sales volumes. Initially, only 85 per cent of subscriptions were confirmed. The subscription process was significantly enhanced during the spring, which brought this figure up to 92 per cent.

Compared to 2022, online sales of subscriptions increased last year in terms of both monetary value and the number of subscriptions sold. This growth is due to successful collaboration between new online sales locations and our sales and editorial teams. A significant rise has been seen in digital subscriptions to Tekniikan Maailman in particular.

Media sales were good in spite of the falling market. They were on par with the previous year and Otavamedia clearly outperformed both the market and its competitors. Our efforts focused on direct sales of media space. Online media sales saw significant growth.

Traffic to Otavamedia’s website continued to grow in spite of the changes in Facebook’s algorithm. Our largest online service, Kotiliesi, experienced significant year-on-year growth in terms of both visitors (+21%) and page views (+27%). Seura is also preparing for its 90th anniversary, and generated over forty per cent more traffic than in the previous year. Otavamedia’s online media sales grew by 13 per cent in 2023.

Toukola by Kotiliesi is a new lifestyle media for homebodies that focuses on short videos. This joint project from our editorial and media sales teams was launched in late autumn.

Both the content and layout of Tekniikan Maailma were redesigned during the year. The TM mobile app was also launched in late 2023.

Both the content and layout of Tekniikan Maailma were redesigned during the year. The TM mobile app was also launched in late 2023. Tekniikan Maailma’s AI app, TM Tuuma, was launched in November 2023. You can ask Tuuma anything you like, and it will search Tekniikan Maailma articles for the answer to these questions.

In early autumn, Otava decided to centralise Otavamedia’s operations at Uudenmaankatu and the TM test laboratory in Pasila. Moving into new premises will not only save money, but will also present us with an opportunity to renew our workplace culture. Planning for the move was handled by the relocation advisory team, which consisted of employees working in a variety of roles and teams.

At the turn of the year, we launched a series of info sessions on the opportunities for harnessing AI and their practical implementation as part of the digital learning path.

All personnel were involved in putting Otavamedia’s strategy into practice via a series of workshops. Small groups considered the challenges faced by the different functions, as well as potential solutions for achieving targets. These workshops also discussed Otava’s Code of Conduct, and a Code of Conduct for Otavamedia was drawn up on the basis of discussions that were held in small groups.