Säynätsalon Sanomat – Medialokki OY

Säynätsalon Sanomat – Medialokki OY
Terhi Takkinen

When Terhi Takkinen arrived on the islands in 1997 with her family in a red Lada, she finally found a place to stay. „Before I lived in places where people were always just passing by. Here on the islands, you stay – this is a place you can really arrive at.”

Over the past ten years, Terhi was active in local scouting Association, Säynätsalo-seura and  the Finnish Home Economics Association martat.fi, which promotes the wellbeing of households and families. Locally in the 2010s Terhi worked as a regional secretary in the Jyväskylä parish of Säynätsalo, where she organized local funerals, weddings and children’s baptisms and acted as secretary to the leading priest. Last four years she worked as a communications specialist for the environmental protection organization Keep The Archipelago Tidy Association. 

But…“when the kids moved out, I realized I wanted to start something completely new. I also wanted to give something back to the island community,“ says Terhi. When the opportunity arose to take over the small local newspaper Säynätsalon Sanomat, she bought it. In recent years, Terhi had already been contributing articles to the paper and discovered her passion for photojournalism. Now she brought all her interests and skills together and founded Medialokki Oy.

The newspaper’s editorial office is located in the Center of Säynätsalo. Right next door is the photo studio and the digital services agency, which are also part of Medialokki Oy’s portfolio.

The first issue of Säynätsalon Sanomat with Terhi Takkinen as publisher, editor-in-chief, and reporter appeared in January 2025. The paper is published every two weeks with a six-week summer break. It has a large number of subscribers, which allows three part-time newspaper carriers to be employed.

The newspaper serves as a shared communication platform for the roughly 3,300 residents of the islands. That’s how Terhi sees her role. “It’s important that we reorganize our community now that the factory is no longer a unifying factor,” she says. “The newspaper is meant to support the future development of our community. I want to offer a platform to make developments and actors visible. For building community, it’s essential that I remain neutral. That’s why everyone is welcome — I am available to all residents on the islands.”