Local journalism and communication is in a changing state, with new communication channels and actors coming to the feld. In this situation, the question of the blurring boundaries of local journalism and communications has arisen. To examine this phenomenon, this report addresses the ethical principles, practices and motives of local journalism and communication in Finland. The report is based on a survey conducted in December 2020, which examined the views of representatives of Finnish newspapers, free-sheets and city newspapers on the mutual relations and changing interface of local news media and communications. The feld of communication is defned here broadly as providing professional information, social and peer communication, marketing and infuencer communication, as well as branding. A total of 103 responses were collected, with a response rate of 38 percent. The topics of the survey deal with the content, goals and cooperation networks of the respondent’s publication, the journalist’s guidelines and ethical principles, and the relationship and boundaries between journalism and other communications. A central question in the report is how media professionals perceive the challenges of the ethics of publication and journalism they represent. This is an important issue especially for the future of local journalism and democracy. The questions in the questionnaire were supplemented by two open questions that were utilized in the interpretation of the answers to the closed-ended questions. In addition, responses to the open questions were used in building scenarios on the future relationship between local journalism and communication. The survey was conducted in the context of the research project “The Blurring Boundaries of Journalism: Ethical Principles and Contradictions of Local Communication”. The project examines the ethical principles and practices of local media and other communication actors that produce and share information in Finland in the early 2020s. The research provides new information and a theoretical understanding of the boundaries of local communication and journalism. It focuses on a situation where local communication and journalism operate in the same feld and target the same audiences but seem to operate under diferent ethical rules. Based on the survey, it appears that the boundaries of local news and various forms of communications blur and the questions of ethical issues and boundaries are topical today in Finnish local media landscape. It is noteworthy that almost half of the respondents could not say whether the Finnish Guidelines for journalists are up-to-date or that they should be updated. The respondents are news media professionals, so the result suggests that this might be an indication that instructions are not known or that they are not easily associated with daily work routines. Another question that clearly shared the respondents concerned critical reporting on local decision-making. Approximately (only) half of the respondents fully agreed on the importance of this task, which is traditionally strongly linked to professional journalism. Respondents perceive the boundary between journalism and communication as being clear in their own media but unclear in other news media. However, respondents believe that the line between journalism and other communications may not be clear to the public, ofcials, policy makers and business representatives. Companies and municipalities have their own communication strategies, and, according to the respondents, they seek to highlight their communication goals in the local news media as well. Based on the responses to the survey, the boundary between journalism and communication is expected to become even more blurred as local, especially municipal, communication practitioners borrow forms and styles of professional journalism. The majority of respondents say that external actors try to infuence the content of their publication by putting pressure in diferent ways. Many respondents also see that business goals threaten their journalistic independence. UUSI KENTTÄ, UUDET PELAAJAT 8 Based on the responses, three alternative scenarios for the relationship between local journalism and communication emerge: 1) Journalism in the sidelines – Local journalism withers as the economic situation deteriorates and competition from the communications sector intensifes, 2) Diferent felds, diferent rules – Journalism and communication diferentiate and fnd their own niches, and 3) Everything is content – The boundaries between journalism and communication totally blur and news media business strategies draw heavily from content production. The scenarios illuminate the expectations of the representatives of local news media for their future and point to diferent strategies to prepare for the future. Of particular interest to local journalism is Scenario 2. It is the only scenario where local journalism builds a sustainable future by journalistic means. The scenario raises an important question of what new ways local news media can develop to make their journalism more interesting and relevant to the local audience