98. Bonnier AB

Revenues 2022: SEK 22.635 billion (€ 2.129 billion)

Overview

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Bonnier AB is a Swedish family company, the roots of which go as far back as 1804. As of today, about 180 companies from Europe, Russia and the USA are part of the parent company. Bonnier AB's core business lies in book publishing and print products such as magazines, daily newspapers and economy publications.
Amongst other things, Bonnier is the primary shareholder of the largest commercial television stations in Northern Europe TV4 (Sweden) and MTV3 (Finland). The company is also home to music and film production companies, online distribution channels and service providers for business and economy information. 

General Information

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Headquarter:
BONNIER AB
Kungsgatan 49
SE-113 90 (Post Address)
Stockholm, Schweden
Tel.: 0046 8 736 40 00
Fax: 0046 8 728 00 28
Internet: www.bonnier.se, www.bonnier.com

Branches: Newspapers, Magazines, Publishing Houses, TV, Radio, Film, Music, Financial Information, Online Games
Legal Form: Limited Company (not market-listed)
Financial Year: 01/01 - 12/31
Founding Year: 1804 (1998)

Table I. Economic Performance (in Mio. SEK)
20162015201420132012201120102009200820072006
Revenues25,49225,90023,70226,68829,17629,81930,57830,86729,59729,20720,247
Profit (Loss)*7311,0101,1031,730(217)6641,000(228)1.5332,4251,439
Employees8,0658,397n/an/an/an/an/a10,90512,16311,8689,721

*Profit after net financial items

People

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Executives:

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


Board of Directors:

  • 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

Management

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The Bonnier AB as it stands today, is owned by 73 family members and a breakdown of the company was averted in 1998, when it was agreed upon that 70 percent of the owners must agree to an eventual sale or listing of the company. This regulation will remain valid until 2030. Within the family, as reported by  Dagens Media, the three different branches of the Bonnier Business are – not so seriously – separated 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 family branch being Pontus Bonnier, deputy chairman of the Bonnier AG and leading director of Bonnier Kosthall and AB BonInvest.

“Den fattiga”, the poor, are descendants of Kaj Bonnier, the long-standing leader of the unsuccessful newspaper publisher Ahlen & Akerlund. There had been massive tensions between him and Albert Jr., a son of Tor, which ended when Bofo bought Kaj's shares in 1952. In addition, the  Dagens Nyheter newspaper was turned into a separate company, in which Kaj Bonnier remained involved. Since the 26th of January 1995, the holding operates under the name Tidnings AB Marieberg.

“Den kåta”, the greedy, is the name for the numerous descendants of Tor Bonnier, who had been married three times and fathered an appropriately high number of children. His grandchildren include (among others), Jonas, Andreas, Carl-David, Beatrie and Jan Bonnier as well as their half-sister Anna Toss, who had been fighting a court-case over a share of her grandfather's inheritance from 2007 onwards.

Jonas Bonnier has been the head of the family company since the 1st of January 2008. Born in 1963, Jonas is the grandson of Tor Bonnier and after studying at the Uppsala University, he had been working as a teacher at first, before he wrote one of a total of six novels, 'Prinsessan och halva kungariket' (The princess and the half kingdom), in 1988. He later worked for the company's magazine division and created the Bonnier Online segment in 1996. From 2005, onwards, Jonas Bonnier was part of the Bonnier AB board of directors and responsible for books, business press and magazines.

Business Fields

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Bonnier combines a plethora of media products under one roof, including books, newspapers, magazines, printed and digital business information, music, cinema, film and TV productions, ad-financed local radio and online services. A total of 180 companies are divided into seven business categories: Books, television, economic press, entertainment, evening newspaper, daily newspaper and magazines.

Newspapers
Bonnier Newspapers publishes newspapers in Sweden and Latvia. ' Dagens Nyheter' is the newspaper with the highest circulation in the nation. Ever since the middle of the 1990s, the so-called Kvällstidningar, newspapers released in the evenings, changed their design and began coming out in the early morning hours instead. The focus shifted to daily news and sensational journalism. The initially left-wing and liberal newspaper 'Expressen' (featuring many regional incarnations, including Göteborgs Tidningen“, „Kvällposten“ and „Stockholm City“) became a tabloid newspaper and reaches a daily total of 1,5 million readers (including on the Internet).

On top of the two large national newspapers, Bonnier Newspapers publishes several regional newspaper such as Sydsvenska Dagbladet“, „Trelleborgs Allehanda“, „Ystads Allehanda“ and „Kristianstadsbladet”. The company also holds a 73 percent share of Skånemedia and its newspapers „Ystad Allehanda“, „Trelleborgs Allehanda“ and „Kristianstadsbladet“.

In Latvia, Bonnier is involved in the 'Diena' newspaper with 84 percent. Other newspaper-related companies are also part of the  Bonnier Newspapers divisions, such as the photography agency Pressens Bild and the print shops Bold Printing Group as well as Premo, of which Bonnier owns a 50 percent share.

Magazines
The Bonnier Magazine Group publishes special interest and lifestyle magazines as well as economy and industry magazines. The magazines are being published in ten countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, USA, Spain and Portugal. Bonner Publications, the most important publisher within this business division, operates offices in Copenhagen and Oslo and publishes titles such as  Science Illustrated“, „In Form” and the respective national issues of „National Geographic“. Other parts of the company are the  “Tidskrifter” publisher  in Stockholm, Global Communicacion in Madrid and Bonnier Corporation in den USA.

The publishing group's business segment first and foremost publishes client magazines, but is also active in BtoB business and publishes freemium magazines. After the take over of the World Publications publisher from the USA, Bonnier acquired the Parenting Group and Time4Media from Time Inc. in 2007 for an estimated 300 Million Euros. The acquired titles include the successful parenting magazines “Parenting” and “Babytalk” plus 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”.

The World Publications publisher also releases about 20 magazines about topics like travel, gardening, food, sailing and diving.

Book publishing
Bonnier is the dominating publishing group in Northern Europe. Bonnier owns the  Bonnierförlagen publishing group (with the Albert Bonniers Förlag and Wahlström&Widstran) in Sweden and the Bonnier Forlagene (with Lindhart og Ringhof and Carlsen) in Denmark. Bonnier also owns the Finnish publisher Tammi, the Norwegian publisher Cappelens and the largest online commercial book website in Northern Europe, AdLibris. For fifteen years, Bonnier has been active on the German book market as well. The business division of the publishing group includes the British book publisher Bonnier Publishing with branches in France, Australia and the USA.

Broadcasting & Entertainment
Bonnier Broadcasting & Entertainment combines the company's film, television and radio efforts. Originally, this division had been called Bonnier Entertainment, but the title was extended to included Broadcasting in 2007, due to the fact that for the most part, the division's revenues are generated in the broadcasting business. Bonnier Broadcasting & Entertainment includes the venerable film production company Svensk Filmindustri, the SF Bio cinema chain, operating cinemas in Norway and Sweden. Bonnier is also active in the Scandinavian music production scene with the Bonnier Amigo Music Group. Homeenter is the company's Internet distribution branch for entertainment media. Bonnier owns 100 percent of the former joint venture 'Nordic Broadcasting' (since 2007), which is the main shareholder of the two largest commercial television stations in Finland (MTV3) and Sweden (TV4). The MTV group also includes Radio Nova, Finland's first private radio station, broadcasting nationally.

Economy Press
Bonnier Business Press is publishing economy newspapers in ten countries, such as the Swedish Dagens Industri and the Danish “Børsen” as well as further publications in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Croatia. Medicine Today International (MTI), publisher of special interest magazines for medicine and health, has been part of the Business Press division since 2006.


Bonnier Digital
This division includes, coordinates and manages all projects, technologies and advertising businesses related to digital media within the Bonnier AB. One of its focal points is the development of new digital business models. Since January 2010, a total 60 employees who had been working in other divisions of the company beforehand, are working at Bink, the first company under the roof of Bonnier Digital. Its goal: To make the ad-driven websites of the individual Bonner publications profitable.