Ilta-Sanomat

What is Ilta-Sanomat?

Ilta-Sanomat is an evening newspaper published by Sanoma Media Finland.^[1] Sanoma's media kit describes it as a paper in which one can read current news and talking points “unohtamatta urheilun, sekä kulttuuri- ja viihdemaailman uutisia”, that is, without forgetting sport, culture and entertainment news.^[2]

The kit states that the printed paper appears Monday to Saturday, with listed exceptions for holidays in 2026. It describes the website: “IS.fi on Suomen luetuin uutispalvelu.” That is the publisher's claim, and the kit gives no measuring body for it.^[2]

The paper's sport coverage sits on a path of its own domain, is.fi/urheilu.

The publisher describes itself in two ways on its own pages. Its home page says “Suomen suurin kaupallinen mediatalo”, and its about page says “Suomen monikanavaisin mediatalo”. The about page states that it works in three business areas: journalism, entertainment and B2B.^[6][8] Its parent, Sanoma Corporation, gives group net sales of 1,303 million euros for 2025. It records publishing its half-year result for 2026 on 29 July 2026, which dates the ownership described here.^[9]

What does Ilta-Sanomat cover?

The publisher places sport among the three strands its description of the paper names, beside culture and entertainment.^[2] Sanoma's list of its media brands for advertisers includes Urheilulehti, the sports magazine, as a separate brand.^[7] In KMT 2026 it appears as IS Urheilulehti, under the Ilta-Sanomat name.^[3]

Ilta-Sanomat is one of the titles from which STT draws its board, and STT states that Sanoma Media Finland owns about three quarters of it.^[5] Sport copy from the agency's sports desk is therefore produced within a company the paper's publisher majority-owns.

No list of the paper's current sports correspondents or events covered could be retrieved from its own site. The description here rests on the publisher's pages, the readership survey and STT's ownership page.

How large is Ilta-Sanomat's audience?

KMT, the national readership survey run by Media Metrics Finland, published its 2026 results on 23 September 2026. Media Metrics Finland stated that they rest on 23,370 respondents aged over 15 in mainland Finland.^[4]

KMT's weekly-reach column is headed “Painettu 1-7 krt/vko + digi vko”. It counts reading the printed paper one to seven times a week, or using the title digitally in the week. Its readership columns count readers of the average printed issue, with and without the digital facsimile edition.^[3]

KMT 2026 gives Ilta-Sanomat a weekly reach of 2,922,800, counting the printed paper read one to seven times a week together with digital use in the week. It gives 172,000 readers of the average printed issue, and 206,700 with the digital facsimile edition.^[3] KMT 2026 gives IS Urheilulehti a total reach of 38,300, a measure that adds weekly digital use to readers of the average printed issue.^[3] These figures cover the whole paper and the whole magazine respectively; KMT publishes no figure for the paper's sport pages alone.

Sanoma's media kit, citing KMT 2025, gives a readership figure of 232,000 and a combined weekly reach of 2,891,000.^[2] Those are the previous year's figures as the publisher presents them. This page gives both and uses KMT 2026 as the current figure. Sanoma states a group-wide weekly reach of 96 per cent in Finland, which is not a figure for this title.^[6]

Since when has Ilta-Sanomat existed?

Sanoma's own history records, for 1932: “Ilta-Sanomat perustetaan Helsingin Sanomien iltapainokseksi.”^[1] On the publisher's account, the paper began as an evening edition of Helsingin Sanomat. The same history dates Helsingin Sanomat to 1904 and its predecessor Päivälehti to 1889.^[1]

No independent source for the 1932 date was retrieved, so it is attributed to Sanoma and not adopted. No launch date for IS Urheilulehti under that name could be retrieved.

Why does Ilta-Sanomat matter in Finland's sport?

KMT 2026 gives Ilta-Sanomat a weekly reach of 2,922,800. In the same survey, Iltalehti has 2,748,700, Helsingin Sanomat 2,060,900 and Aamulehti 749,500.^[3] KMT prints these as rows; it does not rank them.

Its publisher names sport as a core strand of the paper, and carries a sports magazine under the Ilta-Sanomat name.^[2][3] Sanoma Media Finland, which publishes it, describes itself as reaching almost all Finns daily across its channels. That is the company's own statement.^[6]

The paper is also tied to the national news agency. STT names Ilta-Sanomat beside Helsingin Sanomat, MTV Uutiset, Keskisuomalainen, Yleisradio and Sanoma Media Finland as the organisations from which its board is drawn. STT states that the same publisher, Sanoma Media Finland, owns about three quarters of the agency.^[5] On the build date, one publisher owns the evening paper, its sports magazine and the majority of the national agency.^[5][7]