Jonas Bonnier on the New Organization

What's happening, Jonas Bonnier?

At the start of 2012, we will be getting rid of the business areas, which means the current division into types of media will disappear. Instead, Bonnier will consist of 20 company groups that report directly to the headquarters without middle layers and business area heads. Furthermore, five new people will be joining the executive management team.

Why are you making these changes?

It's always been natural for Bonnier to be built around individuals rather than to be putting individuals into an organization chart. With this step we'll be giving increased duties to more key people within Bonnier and creating better career paths. The strict division by media type reflects a past media market rather than the reality of today, and with the changes it will be even clearer that we are an international company with more power lying with the company leaders in each market.

Is there any reason this is being done now?

No, just in that it times well with the reorganization we've done with a number of key positions during the year. Our starting point is the individuals and from them we've tried to hit the best possible structure.

What does this mean for the companies and employees?

In the short run very little, since the companies are so independent already to start with. In the long term, I naturally hope that we'll be stronger by being even better at attracting and retaining the best employees.

The new executive management group will include:

• Jonas Bonnier, CEO, Bonnier AB
• Göran Öhrn, CFO, Bonnier AB
• Sara Öhrvall, Vice President, Business Intelligence and Business Development, Bonnier AB
• Frida Westerberg, Vice President, Corporate Develoment and M&A, Bonnier AB 
• Bodil Ericsson Torp, Vice President, Communication and Human Development, Bonnier AB
• Torsten Larsson, CEO, Bonnier Broadcasting
• Ulrika Saxon, CEO, Bonnier Tidskrifter
• Gunilla Herlitz, Editor-in-Chief and CEO, Dagens Nyheter
• Anders Eriksson, CEO, Bonnier Business Press
• Jacob Dalborg, CEO, Bonnierförlagen

You can see the organization chart for 2012 here.