About Riverå
Riverå provides in-depth local journalism for those who love to touch ground
Riverå is not only a city magazine. It’s also a neigbourhood magazine, or even a block magazine. You can find it in the same places, where we find our stories: close to your home.
We believe that each local story is a microcosm, representing wider global stories of our era. What happens far, happens close. Instead of taking a plane, open Riverå. You might be surprised.
Our Story
Since 2021
Slow, Local, Urban
Riverå was founded in 2021, when Juli Sparfvén, the former editor-in-chief of Old Porvoo Magazine WPGB, wanted to establish an independent media for feature journalism about her city. Together with photographer Annika Blåfield, who has worked as a photo journalist for the newspaper Östnyland, and a Milanese, Amsterdam-based graphic designer Paola Ferri, her mission is to produce high-quality contents for those who love print magazines, city culture, and cultural analysis.
Juli believes that like the city, the enjoyment of reading belongs to everybody. That’s why Riverå is free of charge. By offering a platform for local companies and businesses to advertise their products and services, Riverå wants to be part of the local community, and at the vanguard of creating brand synergy between local businesses run by the new generation of entrepreneurs. Sharing the same values and heritage, Riverå’s mission is to be the link between like-minded local operators.
RIVER(Å) TALES
River, å, joki.
Beloved child has many names.
Porvoo is a city of river, ‘å’ in Swedish, and ‘joki’ in Finnish. Its history has started from the banks of the waterway, the pulsating heart of local and international transportation. It has been the entry point for settlers, traders, artists, and strangers – for all those who have enriched the community with new ideas, trends, and influences.
The essence of a river is its flowing nature: it is connected to the bigger waters. Like a river, Riverå is seasonal, regional, and tied to a community. Yet, more than anything else, it’s communicative: its primary function is to connect local and global.
Stories
with
a Core
RIVERÅ STORIES ARE BUILT TO LAST.
THAT’S WHY WE PRINT THEM.
Slowness is not a typical attribute of urban life. In a city magazine, it’s a fruitful paradox.
For Riverå, being a slow media means publishing timeless contents about current issues. A well-written story and a well-taken photograph are antidotes to our fast-paced culture and its most used medias. At the same time, slowly produced and slowly consumed journalistic contents are an innate part of sustainable living that we must get accustomed to while searching for growth and prosperity.
Porvoossa täytyy olla kärsivällisyyttä odottaa. Pari vuotta on oikeasti todella lyhyt aika, ja sitä paitsi mitä väliä sillä on, jos jokin hanke osoittautuisikin kannattamattomaksi? Isompi ongelma on se, ettei tehdä.
Olen ymmärtänyt, että Porvoossa on ollut aika paljon sitä, että jaksetaan yrittää hetken, mutta jos homma ei lähde heti lentoon, se on koettu epäonnistumisena ja luovutettu. Ei ole uskallusta jatkaa siihen saakka, kunnes breikataan. Läpimurron odottamisessa auttaisi, että kaikki tukisivat toisiaan. Pitäisi kertoa toistenkin jutuista ja muistaa mennä paikalle, kun joku järjestää jotakin.
TAKE IT SLOW
We make creative journalism
Riverå stories inform, entertain, explain, examine, and analyze
Aiemmista sukupolvista meidät erottaa se, että tulkitsemme Porvoota, kuten itse haluamme, ja näemme asiat niin kuin itse näemme, ei niin kuin on opetettu. Olemme joukko monentaustaisia ihmisiä, joille Porvoo on nyt koti.
Koen, että käsityöläisyyttä dumataan turhaan. Toisaalta käsityöläisammattia pitäisi voida viedä eteenpäin ilman, että tulkinta on, ettei tekijä tee enää tekemisen ilosta, tai että kutsumusammatti menee rikki. Yrittäjän vastuullisuus on sitä, ettei alihinnoittele itseään.
Each issue of Riverå Magazine has an editorial theme, making it a cohesive journey from cover to cover. Although having a narrative read thread in a magazine is rather a norm, local journalism is rarely tied together piece by piece. That’s what Riverå is here for.
Whereas local newspapers provide a coverage of local events, a local magazine serves deeper communication needs. It does not provide only a social glue for the community, but also increases understanding on the role of the cities in our society: their economic, social, political, and cultural significance.
Minulle Skutta on märkä uni. Projekti on intiimi, olen avannut täällä himani ovet. Samalla lounasravintolan pyörittäminen tarkoittaa, että etenkin alkuun on keskityttävä muuhunkin kuin tapahtumiin. Se on iso muutos, kun on aiemmin tottunut työskentelemään puhtaasti taiteelliselta pohjalta.
Yritysneuvoja sanoi, etten tule ikinä saamaan sataa lounasta päivässä, kilpailu täällä on niin kovaa. Heimo Keskinen kuitenkin korosti, että onnistuminen on mahdollista, kun listalla on tarpeeksi vaihtoehtoja. Ihmiset hakevat paikkaa, joka toimii kaikille seurueessa.
Aloittaessani Lundinkadulla minulla oli tunne kuin olisin tullut varkain tänne. Kyselin itseltäni, onko minulla oikeus tulla. Se tuntuu hullulta nyt, kun tunnen täällä melkein kaikki. Ehkä siinä on suomalaista huijarisyndroomaa mukana. Herkästi ei uskota omaan paikallisuuteen, jos ei ole pitkät perinteet paikkakunnalla.
How about You?
What would you like to read from Riverå?
We are constantly taking suggestions about people, businesses, and institutions, whose stories are worth telling. Contact us via email and tell us why your singular story might have a general impact. We promise to make it a compelling one.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Riverå Slow Local Urban Magazine, 2022-2023. All Rights Reserved.
The copyright to all copyrightable material (“content”) on this website is property of the publisher. Do not copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, display, perform, modify, create derivative works, transmit, sell, offer for sale, or exploit the content in any other way without the copyright holder’s prior written permission.
For permission to use the content, please contact: juli (at) riveramagazine.fi.
Photography by Annika Blåfield.