Oy Observer Finland Ab August 20, 2003 1(2)

Press release
August 20, 2003
Number of pages: 2
For immediate release
Distribution: The essential media


90 years of top expertise in media monitoring and marketing analysis

Media monitoring has been a part of Finnish media industry for nearly a
century now. Having kicked off as an agent conveying advertisements
(under the corporate name Sanomalehtien Ilmoitustoimisto SITA), Observer
Finland has during the decades expanded its operations into media
monitoring and then later to editorial and analytical services. As a
pioneer in the industry, Observer Finland is today the largest company
specialised in media monitoring and business intelligence in Finland.
The company provides with high-quality knowledge and analytical services
- together with all media sources. Observer Finland celebrates its
anniversary in form of a jubilee seminar.

Observer Finland fills 90 years in September 6th, 2003. The company
owned by Finnish newspapers was kicked off its operations in 1913 under
the name SITA. Then the company mainly focused on conveying
advertisements and media monitoring. In 1997 along the ownership of
Scribona AB the operations expanded into the editorial and analytical
services. At that point the company name was changed into Observer
Finland. Today Observer Group is a listed company that operates in 13
countries and has co-partners in over 50 countries.

Number one in media monitoring
During the nearly century-long history the range of media has widened
significantly, and so has the Observer media list. Observer Finland is
the largest Finnish company specialised in media monitoring and
analysis. Observer is the only company within the field covering all the
media with the largest scale of media sources - print media, television,
radio, news agencies, the Internet and other public information sources.
The Observer media list consists 1,700 sources in Finland, and a total
of 45,000 sources worldwide.

Flow of information into tailored knowledge
The monitoring of media sources is the core work at Observer. Out of the
huge flow of information Observer picks up the required information,
which is then tailored according to a customer's needs. The work is
still largely manual brain work, even though the technological
developments have brought along efficient tools for media monitoring,
reporting and distribution to the customer companies.

The modernisation has also changed the employees' working titles.
Yesterday's readers, clippers and...