A free Finnish newspaper, published by Janton OY (ltd). Contains information on young adults' trends, lifestyles and places to go. Available twice a month in a variety of locations around town.
City as a newspaper has an interesting concept. Since the cities of Finland are varied and quite far apart, each larger city has a separate issue of the newspaper. Most of the features are the same, however, as they touch most young adults and their lives. The "Places to go" and possibly some other articles vary from town to town, but overall the newspaper comes out as quite Helsinki-centric. Note: The author has only limited experience on reading City newspapers from other Finnish towns.
City is available in the following Finnish towns:
The City newspaper is regarded as somewhat of an authority on movie and restaurant reviews. It is quite easy to pick up an issue of City while out in town to see what is playing and if it is worth seeing. In the newest issues, (starting with 07/2002) a new restaurant column, Tarkastaja Lyytinen (Inspector Lyytinen) has appeared. In these, Lyytinen values value for money above all else.
Lately, City has also become host to thousands of personal ads. Many of these are mobile-centered, in that they are keyed in through a mobile phone and can be answered accordingly. This does not detract from the reading experience, however, as the classifieds are in a separate section. City also runs deitti.net, Finland's largest service of the sort.
The homepage, www.city.fi, is a portal for further information about the features in the issues, and also a forum of interaction for the readers. Many chats, message boards and the above-mentioned deitti.net attract thousands of users. The staff also post polls and questionnaires about subjects such as love, casual sex, etc. that are used for articles in later issues.
City is not a newspaper per se. There are only a few larger features per issue, and the rest of the space is filled with fixed columns, short interviews or interactive polls. One of these is Walter de Camp's "Inner Circle", where readers may write in and ask anything about partying, places to be or celebrities to see. City also runs "Life in Hell", a comic strip by Matt Groening. They also have an interesting concept where Finnish celebrities and politicians are asked what they are currently listening to, reading or planning to see.
City also has an English-language counterpart. Containing the essential clubs, events and other necessary information for the young traveller, it is available for pickup at most hotels. This is worth a read for a quick look at Finnish affluent culture and recent events.