Aamulehti was founded in 1881 to "improve the position of the Finnish people and the Finnish language" during
Russia's rule over Finland. The founders were
nationalistic Finns in Tampere. During the
Cold War period Aamulehti was among the Finnish newspapers which were accused by the
Soviet Union of being the instrument of
US propaganda, and the Soviet Embassy in Helsinki frequently protested the editors of the paper. In the 1980s, Aamulehti Corporation acquired the paper
Uusi Suomi, which they shut down in 1991.
Matti Apunen was the
editor-in-chief of the paper until 2010. The paper is based in Tampere and serves the
Pirkanmaa region. Until 1992 the paper aligned itself with the
National Coalition Party, but it no longer has an official connection to any political party. Aamulehti Corporation was the owner of
Aamulehti until 2003 when the paper was acquired by
Alma Media, a large media corporation in Finland, for a reported 460 million euros. In 2020, the
Sanoma corporation acquired Alma Media, and thus, also
Aamulehti. Since 2006
Aamulehti has published four weekly supplements —:
Moro (meaning "Hi" in the dialect of the Tampere region, and devoted to the culture of Tampere) on Thursday, the entertainment-centred
Valo () published on Friday, as well as both
Asiat () and
Ihmiset () on Sunday. The paper covers
innovation journalism at least once a month. ==Circulation==