Life At Bonnier - June 2009

Meet Igor Rõtov, Äripäev CEO

By Ganda Suthivarakom on 2009-06-29
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The 17-year veteran of Äripäev, Bonnier Business Press’s Estonian business daily newspaper, speaks candidly about hard choices, leadership lessons, and what chess couldn’t teach him about managing people.

Igor Rõtov laughs easily.  The shoulders of his checked tweed jacket are wide and loose, and when he jokes with his colleagues, you can see the chuckle in those big shoulders.  An outsider might wonder what Rõtov has to laugh about, given the burden those shoulders bear—the economic situation for most business-to-business papers is no joke.  But Rõtov has a good reason to smile—he has kept Äripäev profitable through the roughest downturn in the paper's 20-year history.

Jonas Westin: Great Moves

By Jonas Westin on 2009-06-29
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GROW blogger Jonas meets the new boss and moves with the office.

We are done moving in to our new work place here in Winter Park. We had a busy time rewiring all the equipment and setting everything up for production. The list of productions we are set to do is filling up fast.
I'm working an intro for a TV show, 4+ promos for different magazines and are going out to shoot some footage, and more is in the pipeline...looks like the tempo is finally going up a bit towards the end of my stay here.

Audrey Bay: Celebration Time

By Audrey Bay on 2009-06-26
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Audrey discovers Swedish Midsummer and celebrates her 27th birthday.

Two months in Stockholm and finally I'm experiencing some of that Swedish summer. Up until this past week, it has been pretty cold and unusually rainy for this time of year. All of my co-workers assured me that this is not normal. Considering that it has been 100+ degrees in Winter Park, I am not complaining too much. Since my last blog, both my birthday and the Midsummer holiday have passed.

Lisa Julius: Taking Care of Business

By Lisa Julius on 2009-06-25
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GROW's Lisa says goodbye to her hosts and thanks Bonnier for the three-month experience.

This will be my last Bonnier blog as I am going home in a few days.  It is harder to leave now that I have made some friends both in and outside of work.

Kaisa Filppula: Media Research on the Web

By Kaisa Filppula on 2009-06-24
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GROW's Kaisa dismisses the skeptics and says committed reader web panels are the way to go.

Media research, like everything else, from our social life to shopping, is moving increasingly to the internet. Paper questionnaires are becoming rarities, telephone interviews are decreasing. Huge call centers are not needed anymore. The whole research industry is in ongoing change. What does this all mean then? Effectiveness, quickness, money savings. Purely positive consequences! "Quality suffers," say skeptics, "not all the people can be reached via internet." That's maybe partly true, but can you really reach all the people via phone or mail either?

Patricia Schmid: Hot Enough

By Patricia Schmid on 2009-06-24
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GROW's Patricia enjoys Florida's natural wonders.

I finally got to see manatees in the wild, as well as dolphins and alligators. I was able to take a few days off last week and to travel around a little bit. This was really great - especially because we are having one of the hottest Junes in Florida in years. I never thought I would say this, but it is sometimes even too hot in the shade. The only thing you can do then is to go inside and enjoy the air conditioning.

Free vs. Paid Content

By Päivi Koskinen on 2009-06-22
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GROW's Päivi Koskinen contemplates the challenges of getting consumers to pay for content and suggests a new strategy for the web.

One of the reasons that got me interested in GROW was that I see a clear analogy between consumer paid online service like Keventajat and a special-interest magazines. We sell different lengths of memberships, magazines sells different lengths of subscriptions. The content is highly targeted and connects people to their passions in the form of articles, tools, discussion forums, video clips, etc.

Happy Birthday, Nia

By Nia Williams on 2009-06-17
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GROW's Nia celebrates a birthday abroad, and gives us her third work tip.

I know I mentioned birthdays in my last blog, and June is certainly popular.  It was my birthday on Tuesday (16th June). When Five Mile asked me when my birthday was, I truthfully said, "Soon." So naturally, they set about finding out when it was. A couple of weeks went by, and nothing more was said until Tuesday.

Gabrielle Green: Eating Like Swedes

By Gabrielle Green on 2009-06-17
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GROW's Gabrielle Green enjoys Swedish meal times, especially fika, even though they cut into her workflow.

On the eve of Midsummer, whilst conceptualising new designs for the revised Bonnier cookbook, I have decided to use this blog to discuss food. In particular Swedish food vs. Australian cuisine and how this defines the working culture.

Malin in Balmain

By Malin Westman on 2009-06-12
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Our GROW blogger Malin is not used to lefthand driving.

I've come to realize the traffic lights are not very efficient here in Sydney. You have to wait for everybodys turn to go, one lane at the time. Theres no co-ordination really. I haven't let myself jaywalk as I am still not used to the cars driving on the lefthand side and not sure from which direction they might hit me. The only thing that is fast is the green light for the pedestrians. I get a third of the way across the road and then it goes red.