At the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, just as in other papers, journalists work in shifts. News work is fast-paced and these days it is done online. Journalist Suvi Ahola keeps changing work assignments.

– On the news shift I wrote short pieces in addition to longer texts. In that shift your own ideas on the basic stories must be prepared in advance. The focus is on current affairs and fast production.

According to Ahola, a culture journalist has excellent opportunities to write articles based on their own ideas at a little calmer pace.

– Curiosity about life and the world continues to generate new ideas for stories. Just thinking about and developing them can guide my work very much.

Ahola notes that curiosity is the most important attribute for a journalist. Many other tasks related to journalism can be learned on the job.

– If there is no curiosity then this job is difficult. It means that there’s little to no interest in things. A journalist must take a wide view with which, if they can’t identify with something, they can at least in some way locate many people’s positions and see things from different perspectives.

The world’s move to the internet has quickly changed things, especially in the media industry. The reading experience is different between the paper and the online versions. When reading the paper version, the reader is forced to take in every spread and see stories which would not necessarily be read while clicking through online headlines. The internet also calls for journalists to write in a different style.

– The people who taught me how to write articles have started to go away as the paper version’s readership drops. The online versions of newspapers may be read by a slightly different kind of people. I want to develop my skills and learn how to write for this “new” media as well as possible.

There is not really a difference between work and free-time for journalists, and especially not for culture journalists.

– It’s a self-evident fact that interesting things about culture are going around the mind of a culture journalist at all times. You get accustomed to it, even if it is slightly more exhausting when you’re older than when you’re young. These days I am into theatre and music more. Of course, I still read a lot in my free time. I feel that my work continues to be extremely interesting.

• Suvi Ahola’s articles in the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper (in Finnish)
• ‘Kirjailijan keittiössä: Suvi Ahola’ (‘In the kitchen of an author: Suvi Ahola’), Eeva magazine, July 5, 2011 (in Finnish)