Internationalisation of educational publishing fits into SanomaWSOY's strategy

Internationalisation of educational publishing fits into SanomaWSOY's strategy

Hannu Syrjänen, President & COO of SanomaWSOY, and Jorma Kaimio, President of WSOY, comment on the acquisition of Malmberg Investments B.V.

- Internationalisation of one or two fields of business along the magazines has been one of SanomaWSOY?s strategic targets for several years. Educational publishing has often been mentioned as one alternative. This acquisition is a result of long investigation, says Hannu Syrjänen, President of SanomaWSOY.

- Since SanomaWSOY Group was established in 1999, educational publishing has been one of our key strategic areas, and we have long investigated it as a potential international field of business. Educational publishing is undergoing a period of transition within unifying Europe and it has great growth potential. We want to have a role in this change, says Syrjänen.

Expansion plans also in the future

- Our aim is to continue the expansion of WSOY Educational. We are seriously aiming to be the leading educational publisher in Europe. Educational publishing has traditionally been a national business and therefore not many international players exist in this area, says Jorma Kaimio, President of WSOY.

According to Kaimio, the educational publishing market is evolving - even though the schoolbooks will mainly remain national also in the future. - Publishing rights are sold across borders, eLearning materials are nowadays made on international basis and there are signs of unifying framework curriculums due to increased migration within Europe.

A real international player

- After the acquisition WSOY is bigger, but first of all it is more international as 45% of WSOY's net sales (pro forma) will be generated outside Finland. Internationalisation speeded up already in spring when WSOY increased its share in the Polish eLearning company Young Digital Poland (YDP) to a majority of 55.1%. YDP has been WSOY?s associated company since 1999. Also WSOY's position as a leading Finnish publisher will become even stronger, says Kaimio.