Ykköslehdet alakynnessä: Johtavien alueellisten lehtien kilpailuaseman kehitys 2000-luvulla

The leading regional newspapers, i.e. the so-called number one newspapers, have traditionally formed the backbone of the press in Finland. Until the end of the last millennium, the leading regional newspaper was brought to almost every home and it provided many readers with a basis for following the daily
news. However, in the era of online media, the importance of regional newspapers as a news source has decreased. They seem to suffer from the shrinking of the industry and the slowness of the digital transition more than national or local newspapers, but the changes they have experienced have not
previously been properly analyzed. The article examines the development of leading regional newspapers during the first two decades of the 2000s with the help of a ring model of the press, using statistics published by News Media Finland as its data. Based on the results, the number one newspapers have
lost both their circulation and their net sales and have cut up their newsrooms on average more than national, subregional or local newspapers. The results suggest that the leading regional newspapers are no longer able to meet the challenge of the national media nor of the local newspapers, but are becoming
interlopers in the media field. When interpreted strictly, they are turning into local newspapers of regional metropoles, whose content, meaning and circulation are increasingly limited to the city in which they are published and its immediate surrounding region.