Yle streamlines its structure
In a meeting held on 30 September, the Yle Administrative Council decided, in accordance with the proposal by the Board of Directors, to change the organisation structure of Yle. The objectives of the reform include a clearer structure, more agile operation mode, and bringing the parts of the organisation together into larger entities. The new organisation consists of a Publications unit, three content units, and a Production, Technology, and Operations unit. Any effects of the reform on the personnel will be examined in a more detailed plan. The new Yle organisation will take force from the beginning of next year.
“The reform highlights Yle's role as a content producer. In addition, managing all publications under one unit provides an opportunity to react flexibly to the changes in the consumers’ media use so that we can serve our audience in Finland even better than before,” says CEO Lauri Kivinen. “We want to build a strong Yle that fulfils its official tasks but also brings about new ideas to the Finnish journalism and culture,” Kivinen continues.
“Yle’s new operation and organisation structure strives to support the Yle strategy of being a modern, evolving electronic public service media company and cultural institution. The new operation and organisation model enables efficient customer-oriented public service content production on many channels and gives the Yle Board of Directors a great opportunity to manage Yle strategically,” says Kari Neilimo, Chairman of the Board of Directors.
“Thanks to the reform, the various operations of the company may be managed as larger and clearer entities than ever before, while breaking down the old barriers between the units. Other objectives include improved transparency, a more efficient allocation of resources, and reaching the financial objectives by 2012, for which the new structure creates an excellent basis,” says Kimmo Sasi, Chairman of the Administrative Council.
New organisational units, responsibilities, and directors:
The Publications unit is responsible for the general planning of the Yle programme operations, the profiling of the publication channels, and the general coordination of content in television, radio, and in yle.fi. The Publications unit includes the management of the television, radio, and online publications, as well as channel-specific editors, co-productions, marketing, research, international programme acquisitions, programming operations, and the Yle archive. Olli-Pekka Heinonen has been appointed director of the Publications unit.
The News & Current Affairs unit is responsible for the Yle news, sports, and current affairs content, regional operations, and content development for all media. Atte Jääskeläinen has been appointed director of the unit.
The Creative Content unit includes all content in Finnish, such as factual programmes, science and education, culture, drama, entertainment, popular culture, children, youth, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Creative Content unit is responsible for the content and development of these Finnish language genres. Ville Vilén has been appointed director of the unit.
The Swedish Programmes unit includes the development of the Swedish language content, as well as the planning and publication of chart and channel profiles for the Swedish language media. Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser has been appointed director of the unit.
The Production, Technology, and Operations unit is responsible for Yle's programme production as well as the management of the service operations related to the production, technology, and premises as one service matrix. Ismo Silvo has been appointed director of the unit.
The company matrices plan and coordinate the development and general use of the Yle resources in order to achieve the objectives defined in the strategy. The company matrices are HR, Finance, Strategic planning, Legal & Contracts, Communication and Public Affairs, and Security.
From 1 January 2011, the YLE Board of Directors consists of
CEO Lauri Kivinen,
unit directors Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Atte Jääskeläinen, Ville Vilén, Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser, and Ismo Silvo, and
Director of HRLiisa Ojala-Walker,
Director of Finance Marja-Riitta Kaivonen,
Director of Strategy Gunilla Ohls,
Director of Legal Affairs Katri Olmo,
Director of Communications Reija Hyvärinen,
Director of Marketing Päivi Nummi-Aho, and
Director of Corporate Technology Jorma Laiho.
For more information, please contact
Chairman of the Administrative Council Kimmo Sasi, tel. +358 50 511 3148, e-mail: kimmo.sasi@eduskunta.fi
Chairman of the Board of Directors Kari Neilimo, tel. +358 50 68 058, e-mail: kari.neilimo@kolumbus.fi
CEO Lauri Kivinen, tel. +358 9 1480 5003, e-mail: lauri.kivinen@yle.fi
