Sales 2023: SEK 22.851 billion (€ 1.991 billion)

Overview

Bonnier AB is a Swedish family business (motto: "We plan for generations, not quarters") whose roots date back to 1804. The group now includes around 175 companies from twelve countries in Europe and the USA (with approximately 8,000 employees), whose core business consists of book publishing and print products such as magazines, daily newspapers, and business publications.

An updated, complete company profile will be published shortly.

General Information

Headquarters
Kungsgatan 49
Stockholm, SE-113 90
Sweden
Telephone: 0046 8 736 40 00
Internet: http://www.bonnier.com/en/financials/

Branches of trade: Newspapers, magazines, book publishers, film, music, financial information
Legal form: Public limited company (not listed on the stock exchange)
Financial year: 01.01. – 31.12.
Founding year: 1804 (1998)

Basic economic data (amounts in million SEK)

	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
Revenue	22.851	22.635	21.393	20.771	28.746	26.915
EBITA	1.956	1.519	1.979	1.432	1.537	1.141

Executives and Directors

Management:

• Thomas Franzén, Chairman
• Lars Dahmén, Head of Business Area, Magazines
• Eric Zinczenko, CEO
• Joachim Jaginder, CFO
• David Ritchie, COO
• Elizabeth Burnham Murphy, CMO

Supervisory Board:

• Carl-Johan Bonnier, Chairman of the Board
• Peder Bonnier, Bonnier
• Bengt Braun, Vice Chairman, World Association of Newspapers
• Maria Curman, Bonnier
• Arne Karlsson, Swedish Security Council
• Kerstin Morgull, Tate Galleries
• Sara Stenman, Nyhetsbolaget
• Jens Müffelmann, Axel Springer
• Martin Harris, Bonnier
• Martin Falk, Bonnier

History and Profile

The first member of the family, now called Bonnier, ever mentioned in writing was Jacob Schye, a Jewish cloth merchant, born in 1674, presumably from Germany, who had come from Dresden and settled in Sob?druhy. The Jewish community in this part of Teplice was one of the oldest in Bohemia.

His great-grandson, Gutkind Hirschel, better known as Gerhard Bonnier, would lay the foundation for one of Europe's largest media companies. Gutkind grew up in Dresden as the son of the jewel and coin dealer Löbel Salomon Hirschel. In the fall of 1801, he emigrated to Copenhagen, Denmark, where in 1804 he received permission to open a lending library on Købmagergade (a shopping street in the city center). He had previously changed his name to Gerhard Bonnier. 
Why he chose this surname is unknown. Historians suspect it may be a reminiscence of the French ambassador Antoine Bonnier d'Alco, who was murdered in 1799 at the Prussian-Austrian-French Peace Congress in Rastatt under circumstances that have never been fully clarified.

The company grew rapidly, and at the end of the 1820s they expanded into Sweden. Possible financial problems are now cited as the reason; after all, Denmark had been forced to declare bankruptcy on January 5, 1813, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars. Perhaps the Bonner family no longer felt safe in Denmark either. During the Jødefejde (Jewish Feud) on September 4-7, 1819, a mob incited by anti-Semitic propaganda likely printed in Germany marched through Copenhagen. Their goal: "to drive out the Jews." Shops on Købmagergade were also looted and windows smashed; whether the Bonnier shop was also a target of these attacks is unknown.

In 1827, Adolf, the eldest of Gerhard Bonnier's nine children, was sent to Sweden to establish a second business as a second source of income. The lending library opened in Gothenburg was such a success that a branch was established in Stockholm just five years later. In 1834, Adolf Bonnier expanded and became the owner of his own publishing house. The following year, he brought his 14-year-old brother, Albert, to join him. He also founded a publishing house, Albert Bonniers Förlag, in 1836.

The first title, the satirical work “Bevis att Napoleon aldrig har existerat” (Proof that Napoleon did not exist), which he translated himself from French, became an immediate box office hit and had to be reprinted.

In 1841, Albert, now of age, was sent to Leipzig, Vienna and Pest to work in bookstores for two years.
Back in Stockholm, he implemented a new idea he had picked up abroad: publishing well-known novels as twice-weekly serials in booklet format. The series "Den europeiska följetongen. Nytt romanbibliothek" (The New Roman Library) was so successful that Bonnier was able to challenge the politician and leading publisher Lars Johan Hierta in the battle for foreign authors and eventually even acquired the Hörsberg Tryckeri printing company.

In addition to novels, Bonnier also published trade and aristocratic calendars, travel books, textbooks and grammar books, as well as “novels for young girls.”
To utilize the rotary presses to their full capacity, his younger brother David Felix, who had also emigrated to Sweden in the meantime, founded the Göteborgsposten newspaper in 1859, which still exists today. In 1872, however, the man, apparently suffering from a chronic illness, sold the paper to a partner for 100,000 riksdaler (€569,082.50 today) – and thus disappeared from Bonnier's corporate history.

In the meantime, Albert's son, Karl Otto, had become co-owner of the publishing house, which in 1896 became the center of a scandal that certainly boosted business. The poet Gustaf Fröding's anthology, "Stänk och flikar," had been confiscated by the Ministry of Justice. The erotic poem "En morgondröm" (A Morning Dream) simply did not conform to the moral standards of the time; after all, it depicted, among other things, a sexual act, albeit very poetically. In a sensational trial, the author was ultimately acquitted by a jury.

In the winter of 1900, Albert died of cancer, leaving behind a fortune equivalent to almost two billion euros in today's purchasing power. He also left behind Sweden's second-largest publishing house, which rapidly expanded under the aegis of his son, Karl Otto. Albert was the first publisher to give Verner von Heidenstam, the future 1916 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, a chance. Karl Otto stuck with the author despite high advance demands and later discovered new talents like Selma Lagerlöf. After August Strindberg's death in 1912, Karl Otto bought the rights to the author's works, and over the next 15 years, the publishing house earned almost ten million kroner from his works—around 17 million euros in today's purchasing power.

His sons Tor and Åke had previously entered the business, recruiting contemporary authors of their own. Around four decades later, however, Bonnier Publishing would make a major mistake: It rejected Astrid Lindgren's first novel, Pippi Longstocking.
In 1929, Bonnier purchased the magazine publishing house "Åhlén & Åkerlunds förlag," which Albert's son Kaj subsequently managed. During World War II, the family remained in neutral Sweden, where in 1944 they founded the evening newspaper "Expressen," a left-wing counterweight to the right-wing, Nazi-sympathetic Aftenbladet. After the war, new publications and business branches were added: in 1946, the printing capacity and graphic design options were expanded through the companies Solna Ioffset and Grafisk Färg, and in 1949, the Billingsfors paper mill was acquired through Dagens Nyheter Holding.

The individual company divisions were consolidated into Bonnierföretagen AB, abbreviated to Bofo, in 1952. Albert Bonnier took over the chairmanship of the new company, handing over the position of head of the magazine department to his brother Lukas in 1957, while cousin Gerard took care of the operational book business.

Two years later, the company expanded abroad for the first time and entered into a partnership with the Danish newspaper group Fogtdal. In 1969, Bonnier AB acquired a 49 percent stake in the Danish publisher Forlaget Borsen. Ten years later, it acquired the French Editions La Croix, which was renamed Publications Bonnier.

In the 1970s, Bonnierföretagen AB invested in the non-print sector of the entertainment industry. In 1973, the Bonnier family acquired Svensk Filmindustrie, the country's largest film and television producer. With this purchase, they also gained control of SF Bio, Sweden's leading cinema operator chain.

Due to changes in Swedish tax legislation and losses from industrial holdings, Bonnier was forced to seek foreign capital in the mid-1970s. The company acquired publishing houses and other media companies in Northern Europe.

In 1993, Bonnier Carlsen was founded, becoming Scandinavia's largest children's book publishing company. That same year, Bonnier entered the German media business with the acquisition of Munich-based Piper Verlag.

In 1998, the family business underwent restructuring, consolidating its various companies and investments into the non-listed Bonnier AB. The abbreviation AB stands for Aktiebolag, literally translated as "stock company."

In Germany, Bonnier acquired the German specialist information publisher Hoppenstedt in 1999, and in 2000, the national language editions of "National Geographic" were published under license in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish. In Scotland, Bonnier founded the business newspaper "Business am," which was discontinued at the end of 2002. In 2001, Bonnier acquired the German children's and young adult book publisher Thienemann, and in 2003, the company acquired the book publishing group Econ/Ullstein/List and the Northern European business of the international business information group Dun & Bradstreet from Axel Springer AG.

In addition, the group acquired the Sandrew Metronome cinema chain in Sweden and merged it with SF Bio. Bonnier has since operated 55 cinemas with 299 screens throughout Sweden. However, the cinema business continues to decline and is characterized by low margins, despite record attendance figures for films such as the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

After the private broadcasters TV4 (Sweden), TV 2 (Norway), and MTV 3 (Finland) founded a joint platform for international program marketing with the sales organization Nordic World, Bonnier became embroiled in a takeover battle with the Norwegian Schibsted ASA Group in 2004 over ownership of TV4, the largest commercial TV channel in Sweden. At that time, TV4's largest shareholder was the Alma Media Group, in which Bonnier also held a 33 percent stake. Bonnier, the most important shareholder in the Alma Media Group, also held its own shares in TV4.

At the end of 2004, Schibsted increased his stake in TV4 by purchasing additional shares and also planned to acquire the Alma Media Group, which Bonnier saw as jeopardizing his special position at the broadcaster.
At the beginning of 2005, Bonnier, together with the private investor Proventus, acquired the broadcasting division of the Alma Media Group for €463 million. In addition to a 23.4% stake in TV4, the Alma Media-owned advertising-financed television station MTV3, based in Finland, was acquired. The MTV Group also includes the subsidiary stations MTV3+, SubTV, Urheilukanava, and Radio Nova.

Bonnier and Proventus contributed these shares to their joint venture Nordic Broadcasting Oy, a production company based in Finland in which Bonnier and Proventus each hold a 50 percent stake.
At the end of 2006, Schibsted finally sold its remaining 26.9 percent stake in TV4 to Bonnier and Proventus for almost 160 million euros. Following further acquisitions and the takeover of the Proventus and Bonnier shares, Nordic Broadcasting now owns 98.9 percent of TV4 (directly and indirectly through its subsidiary MTV Oy).

Significant acquisitions also took place in Bonnier's magazine division. Following the purchase of the US publisher World Publications, Bonnier acquired the US magazine publishers Time4Media and The Parenting Group from Time Inc. in January 2007 for an estimated $300 million. The two publishers together have 18 titles and approximately 600 employees and, in addition to various special-interest magazines, are leaders in the parenting magazine market.

In March 2007, Bonnier founded the American publishing house Bonnier Corporationto summarize the acquired US publishers. With more than 40 titles on the US market and annual sales of $400 million, Bonnier Corporation contributes just over ten percent of the group's total sales.

management

collapse

Bonnier AB is currently owned by 73 family members, and the company's fragmentation is prevented by a regulation adopted in 1998 and valid until 2030, according to which 70 percent of the owners must agree to a sale or IPO of the company.
Within the family, reported Dagens Media, the different branches of the Bonnier family are jokingly divided into three categories.

"Den rika," the rich, are the relatively few heirs of Åke Bonnier. Eva Bonnier and her brothers Pontus, Karl-Otto, and Åke own 45 percent of the company. The most influential member of this branch of the family is Pontus Bonnier, Vice Chairman of Bonnier AB and Managing Director of Bonniers Konsthall and AB BonInvest.

"Den fattiga," or "the poor," descends from Kaj Bonnier, the long-time head of the loss-making magazine publisher Ahlen & Akerlund. Severe tensions arose between him and Albert Jr., a son of Tor, which culminated in Bofo buying Kaj's shares in 1952. The daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter was also transferred to a separate company, in which Kaj Bonnier retained a stake. Since January 26, 1995, the holding company has operated under the name Tidnings AB Marieberg.

"Den kåta," or "the Horny Ones," refers to the numerous descendants of Tor Bonnier, who married three times and had a correspondingly large number of children. His grandchildren include Jonas, Andreas, Carl-David, Beatrice, and Jan Bonnier, as well as their half-sister Anna Toss, who has been fighting in court for a share of her grandfather's inheritance since 2007.

Jonas Bonnier has headed the family business since January 1, 2008. Born in 1963, the grandson of Tor Bonnier initially worked as a teacher after studying at Uppsala University before writing "Prinsessan och halva kungariket" (The Princess and Half the Kingdom), the first of a total of six novels, in 1988.
He later worked in the company's magazine division and set up the Bonnier Online branch in 1996.
From 2005, Jonas Bonnier was a member of the board of Bonnier AB, where he was responsible for the Book, Business Press and Magazine departments.

When Bonnier took up his new position, he had formulated several goals: expanding the internet division, increasing the acquisition of television stations, and merging newspapers.
One of the first innovations he introduced was the Bonnier Research & Development division, or Bonnier R&D for short, plus an idea lab called "B. Vision," which was intended to help "develop the internet company of the future." Sweden would serve as a test market for the launch of new technical products.
R&D is affiliated with the B.Media InvestSince 2009, Bonnier has been offering market launch assistance to newly founded and already funded media companies in the B2B and consumer sectors through free advertising in the group's media. In return, Bonnier receives shares in the respective companies. Among the startups supported so far are the medical portal Netdoctor.se and a discount website for seniors.

Business segments

Bonnier brings together a wide range of media products under its umbrella, including books, newspapers, magazines, printed and electronic business information, music, cinema, film and TV productions, advertising-financed local radio, and online offerings. The more than 180 subsidiaries are currently organized into seven business divisions: books, television, business press, entertainment, evening newspapers, morning papers, and magazines. The business information division is no longer listed by Bonnier, but should nevertheless be briefly mentioned here, as it was of relatively great importance to Bonnier until 2005, especially in Germany.
 
newspapers
Bonnier Newspapers publishes daily newspapers in Sweden and Latvia. "Dagens Nyheter" is the national newspaper with the largest circulation. Since the mid-1990s, when the evening newspapers (known as Kvällstidningar) changed their publication frequency and were delivered in the early morning hours, their focus has shifted from daily news to sensationalist reporting. The originally left-liberal evening paper "Expressen" (with several regional sub-editions, including "Göteborgs Tidningen," "Kvällposten," and "Stockholm City") has become a tabloid that, including its online edition, reaches more than 1.5 million readers daily. The newspaper's sensationalist style led to the so-called "Expressen Affair" in 2005, after the paper falsely reported that actor Mikael Åke Persbrandt, who also played Gunvald Larsson in the crime series "Inspector Beck," had been hospitalized with alcohol poisoning. Expressen was fined for defamation by the Swedish press law enforcement agency at the Ministry of Justice.
In addition to the two major national newspapers, Bonnier Newspapers publishes various regional newspapers such as "Sydsvenska Dagbladet," "Trelleborgs Allehanda," "Ystads Allehanda," and "Kristianstadsbladet." The company also holds a 73 percent stake in Skånemedia, which publishes the newspapers "Ystad Allehanda," "Trelleborgs Allehanda," and "Kristianstadsbladet."
In Latvia, Bonnier holds an 84 percent stake in the newspaper “Diena”
The Bonnier Newspapers division also includes newspaper-related companies such as the photo agency Pressens Bild and the printing companies Bold Printing Group and Premo, in which Bonnier holds a 50 percent stake.

Journals/Magazines
The Bonnier Magazine Group publishes special interest and lifestyle magazines, as well as business and industry magazines. The magazines are distributed in ten countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, the USA, Spain, and Portugal.
Bonnier Publications, the main publisher in this division, maintains offices in Copenhagen and Oslo and publishes titles such as "Science Illustrated," "In Form," and the various country editions of "National Geographic." Other companies include the publishing house "Tidskrifter" in Stockholm, Global Communicacion in Madrid, and Bonnier Corporation in the USA.
According to Managing Director Michael Cordsen, the Magazine Group made a profit of 144 million kroner in 2009 despite the "cyclical decline of around 25 percent in advertising." While the magazine was able to launch new publications in Sweden and Norway with the fitness magazine "Aktiv Træning" and in Finland with the wellness magazine "Evita," the loss-making magazines FHM, Arena, and Cosmopolitan had to be discontinued in Denmark. In Russia, which Cordsen described as an "upcoming growth market," Bonnier plans to acquire additional publishing houses as part of an "aggressive three-year plan."

The business division of the publishing group primarily publishes customer magazines, but is also active in the business-to-business sector and publishes free newspapers.
After taking over the publisher World Publications in the USA, Bonnier bought the Parenting Group and Time4Media from Time Inc. for an estimated 300 million euros in January 2007. Titles include the successful parenting magazines “Parenting” and “Babytalk” as well as special interest magazines such as “Popular Science”, “Field & Stream”, “Outdoor Life”, “Yachting”, “MotorBoating”, “Salt Water Sportsman”, “Skiing”, “Ski”, “TransWorld Skateboarding”, “TransWorld Snowboarding”, “TransWorld Motocross”, “TransWorld Surf”, “ride bmx”, “Quad”, “Shot Business” and “TransWorld business”.
World Publications also publishes around 20 magazines on travel, gardening, food, sailing, and diving. In March 2007, Bonnier merged the three publishers to form Bonnier Corporation, which publishes over 40 magazines in the United States and generates annual sales of approximately $400 million.

Book publishers
Bonnier is the dominant publishing group in Northern Europe. In Sweden, Bonnier owns the Bonnierförlagen publishing group (including Albert Bonniers Förlag and Wahlström&Widstran), and in Denmark, the Bonnier Forlagene publishing group (including Lindhart og Ringhof and Carlsen). Bonnier also owns the Finnish Tammi publishing house, the Norwegian Cappelens publishing house, and AdLibris, the largest online bookstore in Northern Europe. For around fifteen years, Bonnier has also been heavily involved in the German book business (see Involvement in Germany). The group's business division includes the British book publisher Bonnier Publishing, with branches in France, Australia, and the USA.
At the beginning of 2006, Bonnier Publishing acquired the US publisher Weldon Owen, which publishes high-quality illustrated books on cooking, lifestyle, education, and reference works. The restructuring of the Danish publisher Bonnier Forlagene also contributed to this positive development. Thus, the company was able to almost maintain the previous year's good results, which had been driven primarily by sales of the fourth Harry Potter book in Germany.

Broadcasting & Entertainment
Bonnier Broadcasting & Entertainment consolidates the group's film, television, and radio activities; this division was originally called Bonnier Entertainment. In 2007, the term Broadcasting was added to the name, as the division generates a large portion of its revenue from broadcasting. In addition to the long-established film production company Svensk Filmindustri, which operates in all Nordic countries, Bonnier Broadcasting & Entertainment also owns the cinema chain SF Bio, which operates cinemas in Norway and Sweden. Through Bonnier Amigo Music Group, Bonnier is also active in Scandinavian music production. With Homeenter, the company also operates an online distribution service for entertainment media.
In the broadcasting sector, Bonnier has owned 100 percent of the original joint venture "Nordic Broadcasting" since 2007. This company is, among other things, the majority owner of the two largest commercial television stations in Finland (MTV3) and Sweden (TV4). Through the MTV Group, this also includes Radio Nova, Finland's first nationwide private radio station.

business press
Bonnier Business Press publishes business newspapers in ten countries under the umbrella of Bonnier Business Press, including the Swedish "Dagens Industri" and the Danish "Børsen," as well as publications in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Croatia. Websites have also been available in Russia and Ukraine since last year. The high costs of business publications are partially financed by the sale of the 50 percent stake in the Austrian "WirtschaftsBlatt."
Medicine Today International (MTI), a publisher of medical and healthcare journals, has been organizationally integrated into the Business Press division since the end of 2006. This move was expected to improve cooperation with business newspapers, which also primarily focus on the business-to-business sector in their advertising business. MTI publishes magazines in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland, and Slovenia.

Bonnier Digital
This division manages and coordinates digital media projects, technologies, and advertising within Bonnier AB. One of its key focuses is the development of new digital business models. Since January 2010, approximately 60 employees who originally worked in other divisions of the company have been working at Bink, the first company under the Bonnier Digital umbrella. Their goal: to make the advertising-financed websites of the individual Bonnier publications profitable.

commitment in Germany

Bonnier AB owns one of the four largest German book publishing groups and also holds stakes in specialist publishers. Bonnier Media Deutschland GmbH (Munich) is part of the Bonnier Books division and brings together the publishers Carlsen, Piper, Thienemann, arsEdition, Malik, Pendo, and Ullstein/Econ/List, as well as the book distributor Blank, under its umbrella.
Bonnier entered Germany in 1993 with the acquisition of the Munich-based publishers Piper and arsEdition, and the Hamburg-based Carlsen publishing house. Piper primarily publishes fiction and non-fiction for adults in paperback format, while arsEdition publishes high-quality children's books as well as art and gift books.
In 2001, Bonnier acquired the children's book publisher Thienemann, founded in 1849. In 2003, Ullstein Buchverlage followed, which includes the publishers Allegria, Claassen, Econ, List, List Taschenbuch, Marion von Schröder, Propyläen, Ullstein, and Ullstein Taschenbuch. This followed Axel Springer AG's plan to sell the Ullstein Heyne List publishing group to Bertelsmann. The Federal Cartel Office issued a warning against the transaction on May 21, 2003. Bonnier AG subsequently purchased Econ Ullstein List from the group in October of that same year, subject to antitrust approval for the sale of Heyne Taschenbuchverlag to Random House, which it did one month later.
The importance of the German book market for Bonnier AB is demonstrated by the success of the Harry Potter series, which tripled the revenues of the Carlsen publishing house in 2007. Vampires followed the wizard's apprentice: Bonnier AB's 2009 annual report explicitly states that the Twilight series by author Stephenie Meyer, published by Carlsen and in a paperback version for adults by Piper, "contributed significantly to business."

On February 12, 1999, the Federal Cartel Office approved Bonnier Media Holding GmbH's purchase of a 95 percent stake in paperback publisher Ingeborg Blanck GmbH. In the business information sector, Bonnier holds a 30 percent stake in Bisnode (until 2005: Bonnier Business Information), which includes the Darmstadt-based specialist publisher Hoppenstedt and the business information service provider D&B Deutschland. Since February 2015, Bonnier has also controlled 51 percent of Blogform Social Media GmbH, which publishes the "Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten" (German Business News).

Hoppenstedt is the leading German specialist publisher for information technology, automation, and logistics (titles: "Scope," "handling," "LABO," "Kunstoff Magazin," "MTA Dialog"). The company also offers a variety of services, from financial information, sales and direct marketing to controlling and corporate analysis. Hoppenstedt acquired Bonnier Business Information (BBI) in 2000. In 2004, the Dun & Bradstreet businesses (now D&B) in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Switzerland followed. The business information provider D&B Germany was integrated into Hoppenstedt.
At the instigation of the main owner Ratos, the company specialising in credit reports, credit information, trade journals and address sales Bisnode AB  sold by JPMorgan. The provider of digital business information, with more than 90 subsidiaries in 18 countries, was founded in the 1980s as Bonnier Business Information. Since autumn 2005, the Ratos Group, through its Infodata Group, has held 70 percent of Bisnode AB, while Bonnier owns the remaining 30 percent.

A major dispute in the German-speaking region ended the business relationship between Bonnier Media Deutschland and the Swiss wholesaler and distributor Buchzentrum AG, or BZ for short. BZ terminated the distribution contracts with the publishing group after it was discovered that Bonnier had also supplied major Swiss customers via its German publishing distribution company KNO-VA, contrary to the agreement. According to the court, the reason for this is Information from the book report The financial crisis led to a massive depreciation of the euro against the Swiss franc – German suppliers can therefore supply customers in Switzerland more cheaply than Swiss companies. After Bonnier refused to sign a cease-and-desist declaration, BZ terminated the existing contract without notice at the beginning of August – books from the publishing group are now officially delivered to Switzerland by KNO-VA.

Bonnier has been involved in another dispute since spring 2014 with AmazonThe online retailer is now only delivering older Bonnier titles with a delay of up to eleven days – apparently to put pressure on Bonnier to allow Amazon to participate more in e-book sales.

Current developments

The news of the bombing in Oslo and the subsequent mass murder on the island of Utøya dominated the headlines in the summer of 2011, and not only in Norway. In response to Anders Breivik's coldly calculated actions, the major Norwegian newspapers initially ended their traditionally liberal internet policies. Media critics had repeatedly complained that racist hate speech had increasingly been spread in online comment sections over the past few years – Breivik himself had promoted his inhumane ideas there. On August 29, the Bonnier newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Expressen also adopted these changes and announced their intention to stop anonymous hate speech on the internet. Readers can now only comment on articles online if they have previously created a verified account. The rival newspaper Aftonbladet adopted this idea just one day later; comments there are only allowed to users who log in with their Facebook name.

In August 2010, Björn Jeffery, previously Director of Future Media & Technology at Bonnier R&D, was appointed Director of Digital Commerce at Bonnier Digital. Jeffery, who previously worked for various media outlets, is considered a proven Internet and social media expert. The enthusiastic Twitterers will work for both companies within the division to implement the stated goal of company CEO Jonas Bonnier: "The internet should become as important to us as paper." Jeffery stated the goal as "the development of digital commerce products and services that do not fit into the existing segments of books, magazines, TV, and so on. Simply put, we will be looking at areas in which we have not been active before and which involve digital transactions and sales opportunities, for example, games. The biggest challenge of the new project," Jeffery continued, is to figure out "how a traditional media company fits into a digital economy."

Bonnier AB continues to focus on new media: In mid-December 2010, Bonnier Tidskrifter, the magazine division of Bonnier AB, took over the website NewsmillThe website, founded three years ago by Proventus, an investment company of the Bonnier Group, former editors of the Bonnier newspapers Expressen and Aftonbladet, and editors PM Nilsson and Leo Lagercrantz, was founded. Newsmill publishes opinion articles and columns on current events, as well as user texts. Readers are invited to express their views in the comment sections. The platform's website states that it is aimed at "Opinionssverige," or Opinion Sweden. The service is also open to companies and organizations, which can write their own debate articles for a weekly fee of 50,000 kroner, the equivalent of 5,550 euros. Paid comments appear on the website with a pink background. Among the first institutional users was the Swedish state church "Svenska Kyrkan," and now various municipalities, the Swedish Hunters' Association, the engine division of Volvo, Saab, and the country's Reservists' Association, among others, also regularly publish articles there.

News+, developed in-house, is intended to be the new digital format for "the newspaper of tomorrow." At the end of November 2010, Bonnier launched the first News+ edition of Dagens Nyheter. iPad users with a Dagens subscription will be provided with up-to-date content around the clock. The publications Sydsvenskan, Expressen, Daegns Industri, and Børsen will soon follow with their own tablet versions.

Effective April 1, 2011, Bonnier AB merged its HR (Human Resources) and Communications departments. Jonas Bonnier, CEO of the media group, justified this move by stating that "having 11,000 employees in 16 countries poses significant challenges for both the HR and Corporate Communications departments. Our goal is to become the best place for the best people, and this organizational change will help us achieve that."
Bodil Ericsson Torp, 42, was appointed head of the new department. The 42-year-old has been with the company since 1998. Most recently, she was CEO of the digital job placement agency "Workey" – this company was sold back to the original founders by Bonnier AB after just under two years in early 2011.

Bonnier AB acquired a majority stake in Workey in 2009 for five million kroner, the equivalent of approximately €560,000, because the startup's concept seemed to fit well with the new media plans announced by Jonas Bonnier upon taking office as CEO of the family business. What made the job platform special at the time: It functioned like an online search engine, scanning job postings for keywords on company and government websites, news websites, and job placement agencies, collating all results and passing them on to users. The service is financed through online ads and paid links, plus collaborations. Thus, it was initially considered an ideal addition to the "Bonnier Digital" division.
Workey, which appeals to both Danish and Swedish job seekers, quickly proved to be nowhere near as successful as hoped: In 2009, the job search engine generated revenue of 2.7 million kroner, the equivalent of just under €302,000, offset by operating losses of 5.3 million Swedish crowns, or just under €594,000. Bonnier AB sold its majority stake back to the founders but retained a minority stake. Casten Almqvist, CEO of Bonnier Digital, told the Swedish industry news service "Resumé" that this was to keep open the possibility of receiving "additional consideration" in the event of a future sale of the company.