Traditional printing house goes digital
PunaMusta 
develops together with eDocker Lukusali 24/7 service for clients. Reception has been enthusiastic.
Traditional printing houses had two options: either resist the digital breakthrough, or join in and offer clients digital services in addition to printed products. PunaMusta chose the latter option.
"We could have fought against the digital breakthrough, but then someone else would have produced the same service for our clients", explains CEO Teemu Okkonen of the advertising and packaging producer Pohjois-Karjalan ilmoitusvalmistus.
"Development of the service came from the needs of our clients", adds sales director Esa Nykänen of PunaMusta.
Pohjois-Karjalan ilmoitusvalmistus is a subsidiary of the printing company Pohjois-Karjalan Kirjapaino and is participating in the development of the the Lukusali 24/7 service.
Turnkey service
PunaMusta began developing digital solutions to clients' needs in a serious way in early 2013. The aim was to build a service for clients on a turnkey basis. The service was to be made as easy and as functional as possible for the clients.
"Many of our clients have so small organisation that producing a digital publication on their own would have been too much work", Okkonen says.
PunaMusta chose eDocker as its collaborative partner in building the service because the company's skills were convincing. Lukusali 24/7 opened in early May 2014.
"eDocker was a Finnish company and they wanted to start developing the service together with us", Nykänen says, explaining why eDocker was chosen.
"Of course we were concerned about eDocker being a small company and wondered if it might still exist a year later. Collaboration has nevertheless worked very well and we have received dazzlingly good feedback from our clients who use the service", Okkonen says.
New marketing channel
More than 20 clients of PunaMusta use the Lukusali 24/7 service. Their publications can be read on the service as enriched versions on computers and iPads. PunaMusta compiles the digital versions of publications from printed material and from additional material selected by the clients. Clients are able to make revenue with the help of the enrichments.
"Interactive ads can be sold separately to enrich the electronic publications. This is a new marketing channel for the clients", Esa Nykänen explains.
One satisfied PunaMusta client is Pro Sail Magazine, a lifestyle publication for sailing. Three issues of the magazine have been published in the Lukusali service. The digital publication is appreciated especially by readers who travel frequently.
"All of the feedback we have received has been positive. The most significant additional benefit from the digital publication is that we get bonus materials, such as pictures and videos of sailing competitions, for instance. Advertisers are also looking for multichannel solutions", says the magazine's editor-in-chief Mika Lehtinen.
Next step in the development of the Lukusali 24/7 service is the broader introduction of analytics, improving the reading experience with smart phones, and the utilisation of metadata.
Although PunaMusta has taken on the profile of a traditional printing house in the eyes of its clients, the clients have accepted the digital expansion with great satisfaction.
"Confidence in us has been high in this matter as well", Teemu Okkonen observes.
PunaMusta
- PunaMusta is a printing house which prints newspapers, magazines, and books. PunaMusta also provides Lukusali 24/7 digital service. PunaMusta is part of the Pohjois Karjalan kirjapaino group.
- Founded in 1988.
- Production facilities in Joensuu, Tampere, and Nurmes. Sales, customer service, and repro also in Helsinki
- 250 employees.
- Turnover EUR 63.5 million (2013). Pohjois-Karjalan Kirjapaino turnover EUR 93 million (2013).
- Slogan PunaMusta, thoroughly North Karelian - nationally effective.