A warning for any newspapers thinking of going online-only - one Finnish daily that tried it has fared so badly it’s now being merged back in to a printed title in its parent’s stable.

SEE ALSO: Research: Going Web-Only Could Kill Your Newspaper

Business paper Taloussanomat stopped printing to focus on digital in December 2007 and quickly saw its costs fall 52 percent. But, according to City University research we covered last month, the new Taloussanomat.fi also lost 22 percent of its users and 75 percent of its revenue. Now, as City researcher Neil Thurman emailed us this weekend to say, owner Sanoma has given up, merging Taloussanomat.fi with Ilta-Sanomat, a mass-market tabloid that is Finland’s second-biggest newspaper. Here’s Taloussanomat.fi’s own coverage.

President Mikael Pentikäinen said the company - which has extensive newspaper, magazine and broadcast interests - must double to €30 million a €15 million savings plan that was only announced in the New Year. So Sanoma is now making staff cuts totalling “about 300 man-years”. If that sounds cryptic, then as Thurman told paidContent:UK: “Taloussanomat.fi are kicking out 14 journalists, and the editor-in-chief is losing his job. They say it will maintain its ‘brand’ but basically they are killing the whole thing.” Sanoma’s Q1 operating profit slipped t0 €20.9 million from €72.7 million last year (full earnings).

In the US, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Christian Science Monitor have taken the plunge and killed their print editions to publish online only. In the UK, some mags like Knowledge, The Ecologist, Maxim. Despite speculation, The Independent has told us it’s unlikely to follow suit.