Sanoma Corporation is reorganising its business-to-business (B2B) services by establishing a new business unit, Sanoma Business Services. The new unit, which has net sales of EUR 26 million, comprises Taloussanomat Oy, the Esmerk Group and Lehtikuva Oy.

The new unit provides services to more than 600 corporate customers and will be largely enhanced through wider product development. As such, the current needs of the client corporations are expected to be met more comprehensively.

- Our customers expect increasingly more customised and tailored services. We are certain that the service will be improved through the increased cooperation, says Mikael Pentikäinen, President of Sanoma Corporation.

Sanoma Business Services will cooperate closely with the B2B units of the other SanomaWSOY divisions including WSOY (WSOY Business Information), SWelcom (2ndhead) and Sanoma Magazines.

- Together we can provide a truly versatile B2B product range. There is huge growth potential for the group in this business, explains Pentikäinen.

Juhani Pekkala, 49, President of Taloussanomat and Senior Editor-in-Chief, will report to Sanoma Management Group for the new Sanoma Business Services.

- The new unit will strengthen Sanoma's position as a producer of financial information and B2B services. Our aim is to give our customers all the financial information they need, says Pekkala.

Tarja Soininen, 42, M.Sc. (Econ), MBA, has been appointed Development Manager of the new unit. She comes to Sanoma from WSOY where she worked as Department Manager. Previously, Ms. Soininen worked as Marketing Manager at Helsinki Media and Eurocable and Planning Manager at Sanoma Corporation, among others.

The current Managing Editor of Lehtikuva, Juha Nousiainen, 51, has been appointed Editor-in-Chief. He also serves as acting President of Lehtikuva.

The Sanoma Business Services Management Group will also be managed by Derek Cox, 47, Managing Director of the Esmerk Group, and Ilkka Räsänen, 54, Managing Director for the Nordic Operations at Esmerk Oy.

Taloussanomat Oy owns the business daily Taloussanomat, the weekly IT supplement ITviikko, the news agency Startel and the online portal Digitoday.fi. Esmerk produces global business information in English, monitoring media coverage in about 130 countries translating from around 30 languages. Lehtikuva is the leading full-service picture agency in Finland.

The arrangements will not effect any changes in the current customer relations or agreements of Taloussanomat, Esmerk, or Lehtikuva.

Sanoma Business Services belongs to the Sanoma Division of the SanomaWSOY Group.