The Future of Freelancing – Nordic Freelance Seminar

Kim Perry is a senior editor on the Digital Transition team at the New York Times. Previously, she was director of Editorial Coaching and Development at NPR, where she led multi-platform training and newsroom strategy efforts at public media newsrooms across the country. Between 2008 and 2013, she headed up two digital training initiatives funded by the Knight Foundation — first for NPR staff and management, and then for public media member stations. Before coming to NPR, she worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune and SignOnSanDiego.com as a content producer and newsroom trainer. She’s previously reported for the Associated Press in Alaska, The Modesto Bee and other Bay Area newspapers.

Hanna Nikkanen is an investigative journalist and editor-in-chief of the Finnish long- form journalism publisher Long Play. She was visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Tampere for the 2016-2017 academic year. Nikkanen covers issues such as digital surveillance, natural resource conflicts, migration and corporate globalization. Her work has received recognition from the European Union (Discrimination and Poverty category of the EU Journalist Award, 2010), the Finnish state (Award for public information, 2011) as well as the Bonnier Journalism Prize (”Best Story”, 2013, together with Anu Silfverberg). She has published four books of non-fiction.

Mark Egan has worked as a radio reporter, producer and newsreader for BBC radio stations. He then moved into television as a reporter, before becoming one of the first journalists at the BBC to train as a video journalist. He eventually became the lead video journalism trainer with the BBC College of Journalism. After leaving the BBC, Egan continued to do some work for the corporation, while doing a mix of video journalism, video marketing and training. He has worked with major brands and PR agencies on PR and marketing campaigns. In addition he gives training on media skills to businesses, organizations and charities. He now has his own company Purple Bridge Media and is in demand as a speaker and trainer throughout Europe and beyond.

Anders Hofseth is a Strategic Adviser and Journalist at NRKbeta, The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK’s future lab and think tank. In 2016 he was a Journalist Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, doing research on media’s role in democracy. His main fields are public service journalism, strategy, media trends, and public dialogue.

Paulina Tervo is the co-founder and co-CEO of Lyfta, an EdTech startup founded in 2016, innovating in the field of VR and interactive documentary for 21st Century learning. Her background is in documentary filmmaking and digital media, working in over 20 countries worldwide. Previously, Tervo was co-founder and director of Write This Down, a creative storytelling company in London, that creates films and interactive documentaries for some of the biggest global brands, international NGOs and renowned cultural institutions. Her documentaries and reports have has been published or featured in the Guardian, the BBC, ITV, Discovery Channel, Deutsche Welle, ZDF and YLE as well as in several museums, festivals and events worldwide.

Martin Schibbye is a Swedish journalist and former editor. After an assignment in the conflict-ridden Ogaden region of Ethiopia he was sentenced in December 2011 to eleven years in prison for terrorist crimes but was later pardoned and released on in September 2012. He has worked as a foreign correspondent for several newspapers, including The Times, Amelia and Proletären.[3] He has also worked in several different countries, including Algeria, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Thailand and Vietnam. He has been the editor of the quarterly Iraksolidaritet and the monthly magazine Folket i Bild/Kulturfront. Recently he worked for the magazine Filter and works now as editor in chief for the Blank Spot Project. Blank Spot is a digital platform for long-form journalism reported from around the world, and focuses on stories that usually do not get noticed.

 Anssi Komulainen, Founder of Yle Beta is the Innovation lead of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle. He has over 15 years of experience from TV/radio/transmedia production and creative management. As the founder of Yle inhouse innovation startup Yle Beta he is constantly on a quest for something new. His job is to test the possibilities of emerging technologies and to find out what they can offer to public service media in the future. Previously Anssi has also worked as a media development specialist in South East-Asia. Yle Beta is an incubator for future media experiences. Our job is to explore the new possibilities emerging technologies open for us as storytellers and journalists. We enable Yle and our partners to experiment and learn from the wildest ideas while building the best digital public service in the world by 2020.

Jonas Bendiksen is a Norwegian photojournalist based near Oslo. He has published the books Satellites (2006) and The Places We Live (2008) and received awards from World Press Photo, International Center of Photography, National Magazine Awards and Pictures of the Year International. Bendiksen is a member of Magnum Photos and has served as its president.

Eoghan Sweeney has been a journalist full-time since 1999, and recently joined non-profit organisation First Draft as Global Training Director. Before this he spent almost six years with social media news agency Storyful – as one of the earliest hires, he was a member of the core team that developed industry-leading techniques and systems for monitoring, discovery, verification and delivery of online content. He is also involved in training and consultation for media organisations of all sizes, as well as NGOs, activist groups and others..

Dr. Mari K. Niemi is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Parliamentary Studies, University of Turku. She specialises in media-politics relationship, populism, political campaigning and political communication. In her current research project Niemi explores the relationship between Nordic populist parties and journalistic media. Since 2013 she has worked abroad as visiting researcher, (University of Strathclyde 2013-2016, University of Gothenburg spring 2017), currently she is based in the University of Valencia. In 2015 Mari K. Niemi was awared Academic of the Year by The Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers (FUURT)

Hanne Aho is the president of the Union of Journalists in Finland. Hanne Aho worked as graphic designer in the weekly Suomen Kuvalehti, and was 2004-2012 the chief shop steward of the publishing concern Otavamedia, one of the largest Magazine publishers in the country with 82 magazines and some 430 staff. She was also the chairperson of the national branch of magazine journalists, the second largest branch of the union.

Elina Grundström is the chair of the Council for Mass Media in Finland. She has a masters degree in sociology and wide-ranging experience of the media terrain. Her positions have included being editor-in-chief of the biweekly magazine Vihreä Lanka and visiting professor of journalism at the University of Tampere. She has written several non-fiction books and is well known as an outspoken columnist and an expert on freedom of expression. She was chair of the council of the Finnish Foundation for Media and Development VIKES from 2006 to 2015.

Janne Gleerup, Work Life Researcher, Ph.D. Associate Professor, at Roskilde University, Denmark Janne is currently working with studies on the spread of precarious work conditions among knowledge workers. In her presentation she will focus on, what characterizes new tendencies towards precarious work and invite to debates on, how professionals and their trade unions can address new challenges in proactive ways.

Olli Sulopuisto is the co-founder of Toimitus Sulopuisto & Luoma-aho, an independent podcast production company. Their shows include Vikasietotila for Yle, Apunen/Maliranta for the think tank EVA, and Hyvää huomista, a future-oriented podcast for The Finnish Innovation Fund SITRA. Previous to that he made his career as a freelancer covering technology and popular culture for such major Finnish publications and outlets as Helsingin Sanomat, Yle, Mikrobitti and Long Play.

Maiju Mitrunen is Executive Director of the cooperative Mediakunta Osk. Mediakunta is a new cooperative for journalists and media professionals. Mitrunen manages and develops services, communications and handle the billing, paperwork and other administrative tasks. All members of the Union of Journalists of Finland are welcome to join Mediakunta. For clients, it offers the most talented journalists and media professionals, publishing editors, graphic designers, photographers and translators in Finland. Interested? Contact us: mediakunta@mediakunta.fi.

Anu Silfverberg is a journalist and author. She is one of the founders of Long Play, a prestigious online publication of long form investigative journalism.

Julia Thurén is a producer at youth magazine Demi and a YouTube community manager at A-lehdet. As a freelance journalist she writes articles about economics, technology and pop culture. Thurén also blogs and vlogs about motherhood and society.

Touko Hujanen is a Helsinki based press photographer specialized in classic reportage. He’s clients include The New York Times and Raymond. He is the publisher of conceptual newspaper Uuden Maan Sanomat and chairman of the Finnish 11-collective. He has been awarded as the press photographer of the year and young press photographer of the year in Finland. He has a Masters in visual journalism from the University of Tampere.

Pasi Kivioja is a freelance journalist and entrepreneur at Viestintäluotsi. He is a media columnist and blogger in Suomen Kuvalehti magazine and the second vice chairman at the Finnish Council for Mass Media.

Mattias Kumlien is the deputy Press Ombudsman of Sweden. He is currently on a leave of absence from his service as a junior judge at the district court in Stockholm. Kumlien is a graduate of law from Uppsala University where his studies specifically focused on EU labour law. Before starting his career as a judge, Kumlien worked as an associate at the Finnish-Swedish law firm Roschier in Stockholm.

Pekka Pekkala is a former technology writer for all major Finnish outlets and one of the middle-aged men who built the first internet news services. After spending five years as a scholar at USC Annenberg in Los Angeles, he set up his own fact-based communications agency, Beam Me Up Helsinki.

I’m a turkish journalist who lives in Turku, the oldest city of Finland. I proudly identify myself as a turk from Turku. I graduated in 2014, as a Bachelor of Culture and Arts from the University of Applied Sciences in Lapland. My major was media. After graduating I worked in the National Broadcasting company of Finland, Yle Turku. At the moment Yagmur Özberkan is hosting a radio show in Yle Puhe called Mahadura&Özberkan with her colleague Susani Mahadura. They’ve been hosting the program for a year now. In the program they give a voice for the minorities of Finland who feel that they are left out of the conversation. We need to talk more about the reality in which many of our minorities live. Their main goal is to make people understand that we all are finnish regardless of our backgroung.

Jari Järvenpää is the CEO and co-owner of Rapport, an online media crowdfunding and publishing platform startup founded in 2014 to reform the business model for journalistic contents. He is specialized in communications, leadership and business development and is one of the creative minds behind ”Make a promise for education” policy campaign to raise awareness for importance of investing in education.

Niko Kettunen is a freelance science journalist and a contributing editor for Helsingin Sanomat. He specializes in science and feature journalism and also regularly test-drives and reviews new cars for Helsingin Sanomat. Since 2013 he has written the ”Featured Creature” -column (Viikon eläin) for the science pages in HS. The column is an eccentric combination of opinionated political satire and science, and has been very well received by the readers.

Susan Mahadura is a finnish srilankan journalist who works in Yleisradio, the Finnish National Broadcasting Company. Mahadura is one of the hosts of a radioprogram called Mahadura&Özberkan. Different minorities are significantly underrepresented in the media and our job is to tell the stories that have been forgotten. Their focus is to see the person behind the stereotypes. They tackle the question of what it means to be finnish but also what it means to be a person of color in this society.

Anna Pärnänen, PhD, works as Senior Researcher at Statistics Finland. She has a long experience on labour market research and data collection. Among other things she was responsible for the Self-employed without employees in Finland 2013 –survey.