Big Changes on the Eastern Front

For Bonnier Business Press in Central and Eastern Europe, 2009 has been marked by the drastic tightening of budget strings. In total, expenditures have been cut by around 30 percent, and in some countries even more.

In Poland, you've cut staff levels almost in half, and you've made similar reductions in Estonia. Is it possible to even operate newspapers under these conditions?

"Executing these changes has been extremely difficult and demanding for our local organizations. At the same time, they were absolutely necessary to secure the future of these newspapers. Thanks to the fantastic attitudes of our colleagues, it's been possible to generally maintain the newspapers' content and quality. In most cases, however, we've been forced to reduce the number of pages in each edition due to the drop in advertising volume."

In July, Bonnier sold its last pure daily newspaper outside Sweden, Latvia's Diena group, together with the business newspaper Dienas Bizness. Operations in Croatia were also sold early this year. Which country is next on the list of sell-offs?

"Our focus is entirely on developing and strengthening our existing operations, and we have no plans for further sell-offs."

While most media bosses have cut back on new investments during the recession, Eriksson did just the opposite. With two guiding principles - "the newspaper should be almost free to buy and, in principle, it should generate profits from day one" - Eriksson has continued to develop Bonnier Business Press operations in Central and Eastern Europe.

• In the spring of 2009, a network for economists specializing in accounting and a network for secretaries were acquired in Estonia. Seminars, events, magazines and a website have been established in connection with the acquisitions.

• In August, the Polish conference and business event company Informedia was acquired. The company also arranges seminars and training programs.

• A purchase of the remaining 50 percent of Bonnier Business Press' Bulgarian business newspaper Pari is currently underway, although is yet to be completed.

• Two free newspapers have been established in the Baltics: a personal finance newspaper in Lithuania with a circulation of 150,000, the largest of its kind in the country; and Kaubandus, an Estonian newspaper devoted to commerce and retailers with a circulation of 300,000, also the largest of its kind in the country.

• Dprealty.ru, a website for real estates sales in St. Petersburg with over 30,000 items listed, was launched. Estateline.ru, a portal for the real estate and construction sectors, was relaunched.

• A medical publication was started in Slovenia, a country within the CEE area.

What is Bonnier Business Press' strategy in Central and Eastern Europe?

"We have strong brands that we want to leverage by developing a wider range of products and services. We're building on the Dagens Industri concept, but we're doing so by adding new offerings. We believe in the business of print media. All our editions grew until last year, and it wasn't until the financial crisis that we started to experience a fall in circulation. We want to be the leaders, preferably dominant within our respective markets, which is exactly what we are in Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, St. Petersburg and Krasnodar in southern Russia - but not in Poland and Bulgaria."

Which is your main target audience? 

"Entrepreneurs and decision-makers in medium- to large-sized companies. This is also an interesting target group for advertisers, because they're not only decision-makers. They're also consumers who might be attracted to things like cars, houses, vacations, etc. We usually say that we're not just B2B. We're also B2HC - Business to High Consumers."

Since the autumn of 2008, headlines in the world's business newspapers have mainly been very dismal, and the CEE markets have hardly been among those least affected. The same questions are on everyone's minds: When will things turn around? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

"Let me put it this way: We don't expect the market to help us out for quite a while, but in some markets we're seeing signs that things may have bottomed out," Eriksson explains.

And he definitely doesn't exclude the possibility of further investments in the near future:

"We're looking at a few fresh opportunities."