The Jämsänjoki river valley yearbook records the news events of the year month by month (from October to September) and jumps to history by repeating important news items and phenomena from decades ago in ten-year intervals from the 1920s. The publisher's representative Teuvo Tihilä of the Jämsä local area society and reporter Risto Hakola came up with the idea for the contents of the yearbook during the planning of the first yearbook. The interlacing of past and present gives the book its unique flavour. When the entire ten-book series is finished, a wide-ranging study of the Jämsänjoki valley between the years 1921 and 2010,a time span of ninety years, will have been made.

The text in the first yearbook (2001) was written by Risto Hakola. From 2002 the book was edited by the newspaper Koillis-Häme, the book of 2002 was a team effort, and the books of 2003 and 2004 were edited by Risto Hakola. The book of 2005 is currently being written by the editor Ritva Boman.