How a leading news site became the frontrunner in responsibility.
Alma Media’s Iltalehti switched to real-time publishing of moderated comments, and got increased traffic, better conversation and more engaged users. Utopia’s AI content moderation software handles routine work and follows the editorial publishing policy to the letter.
”We chose Utopia after comparing several vendors. Their implementation was fast and smooth. When we switched to automatic moderation, the average publishing delay was cut in half and we saw a 30% increase in the number of daily comments. Utopia’s AI Moderator not only saves us money and improves the quality of moderation, but it also has increased the number of returning visitors and the time they spend on our site“ Antti Salonen, CTO, Alma Consumer at Alma Media Corporation.
About Iltalehti
Alma Media’s Iltalehti is the second largest online media in Finland. Iltalehti.fi is read by more than three million people monthly and has a very active news commenting section.
Moderation that follows the newsroom’s policy
Iltalehti’s move to automatic moderation brought routine decisions into a real-time publishing process. The AI applies the editorial policy while helping the newsroom support an active reader discussion.
Faster publishing, stronger participation
As Antti Salonen describes above, implementation followed a comparison of vendors. The transition halved the average publishing delay and increased daily comments by 30%. Alongside lower costs and improved moderation quality, Iltalehti reported more returning visitors and longer time spent on the site.
The experience connects operational efficiency with audience engagement: faster decisions help readers take part while a discussion is still active.
Supporting growth in reader comments
High volumes can become quickly a challenge for a team of moderators to handle without the help of proper tools. AI helped the team manage that workload and publish comments faster, creating room for participation to grow.
In 2019, the team reported growth from around 80,000 to more than 180,000 comments per month after bringing AI moderation on board.
Scaling moderation, not the costs
The team saw a financial benefit from reducing time-consuming manual review. Handling the larger comment volume entirely with human moderators would, they explained, have cost substantially more than their AI-supported approach.
Iltalehti also reported better moderation quality while acknowledging that there was still work to do. The aim was to support human moderators as the discussion grew.
A smooth implementation and ongoing partnership
Implementation is quick and straightforward. Iltalehti values Utopia’s responsive communication, interest in how the service is working and practical support when issues arise. The team enjoys a smooth collaboration without unexpected surprises.