Nico Pitney has worked his way through the Huffington Post from front to back, starting as Politics Editor in 2008, through National Editor, DC Bureau Chief, and Executive Editor. Now Vice President of Product at HuffPost, he will soon be coming to Sweden to speak at Bonnier’s annual internal inspiration summit, GRID.

Can you give us a sneak preview of what you'll be talking about at GRID?
The Huffington Post is as much a technology company as a media company. As the former executive editor, and now vice president of product, I've seen both sides firsthand. I'm going to talk about our company culture that unites editorial and engineering; about the technology we are building and why we're building it; and about how we're approaching our four key goals -- social, mobile, video, and international expansion.

I'll put special emphasis on one of our top projects for the year, launching a brand new global content management system (CMS). Our editors use this set of tools to create their content, promote it on social media and beyond, and analyze its performance. I'll discuss how we've shaped our new CMS to adapt to the emerging digital media landscape. 

Your title is "Vice President of Product" - what exactly does that mean that you do?
The product team between editorial, engineering, and revenue. Our first job is to understand the goals and priorities of each of these groups. Then, using that knowledge, we devise features and tools that help accomplish those goals through technology. Finally, we act as project managers, making sure those features are built as intended and launched on time.

Anything you're looking forward to particularly about coming to Stockholm and GRID?
Naturally I'm thrilled to hear all of the talented speakers at GRID. Moreover, I'm eager to learn from the Bonnier staff. The Huffington Post has spent only a few years focused on lifestyle content and building an international brand; Bonnier has been a leader in these areas for decades. Also, I spent a month in Sweden as a young boy, my first trip outside the United States. It had a profound impact on me and I'm so excited to return. 

After 13 years as CEO for Swedish afternoon newspaper Expressen, Bengt Ottosson has decided to retire. The board has named chair Gunilla Herlitz as acting CEO for Expressen.

“I’ve been at Expressen since 1994 and as CEO since 2001, which have been fantastic years,” says Ottosson. “During my tenure as CEO, Expressen again became a stable profit center and during the past two years, we’ve had an incredibly high growth both in terms of online traffic and digital revenues. With this in mind and the plans for developing digital operations and maintaining profitability for print, I’m convinced that Expressen will continue to strengthen its market position.”

Herlitz has been board chair for Expressen since 2013 and will become acting CEO effective immediately.

“Under Bengt Ottosson’s leadership, Expressen has developed extremely successfully,” says Herlitz. “Since 2002, combined profits have been over SEK 1 billion. The paper has more readers than ever and digital ad sales are increasing strongly, providing a good foundation for the continued challenges facing the media market.”

“During his 20 years at Expressen, including 13 as CEO, Bengt Ottosson has been a key person within Bonnier,” says Carl-Johan Bonnier, board chair for Bonnier AB. “His initiative has been central for the paper’s strong development and the solid position Expressen is in for successfully facing the current transformation of the media industry.”

With the change in leadership at Expressen, Tomas Franzén, CEO for Bonnier AB, will become the new board chair for the paper. 

"We're incredibly proud and excited about the prizes," says Spoon CEO Anders Ribba about the content agency's recent double-win in the Content Marketing Awards.

The awards were held on Friday for the 11th time. They are run by the Content Marketing Institute in the U.S. The contest recognizes the best content-marketing solutions and measures both creative and strategic innovation. Spoon has won prizes for two years in a row and has established itself as a world-class content agency.

"Spoon is expanding internationally right now, with new offices in several markets, and the recognition these prizes confer is of course extremely important," says Ribba. "We work with many multinational customers and see powerful growth outside Sweden."

Spoon won a gold in the category Best Annual Report with "The Safest People in the World" project for insurance company IF. It won a silver in the category Best Print/Dgitial Content Integration for its "Let's Make a Difference" project for Axel Johnson. 

Nordic video-on-demand (VOD) service SF Anytime, together with the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation and Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, has announced a new initiative tied to the VOD release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The service will be offering online rental of the film at two prices: one for normal rental, and a second where you can do a good deed by paying SEK 10 more, which then goes directly to the Childhood Cancer Foundation.

"A lot of people will gladly donate money to charitable causes and will do so if they have the opportunity," says Marta Jarzabek Hulthén, marketing manager at SF Anytime. "Choosing to pay a little more when you rent a movie online, and giving that extra amount to charity, is a simple way to do your share."

"For us at the foundation, all children who fight against cancer are real superheroes," says Per Leander, managing director for the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation. "I think it's so appropriate that Spider-Man uses his powers to help more children get healthy, and hope many will join in and give to the campaign."

You can rent the film and at the same time support the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation at sfanytime.com/superhero. If you want to give even more to The Amazing Spider-Man's donation drive, just go to the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation's campaign web page. The goal is to collect at least SEK 50,000 for the foundation.

Roland Hjort, founder and designer for Swedish fashion house Whyred, won the prestigious Damernas Värld Guldknappen 2014 - the Golden Button - prize on Friday. The award was given at Grand Hôtel in Stockholm, along with an award for accessories, Damernas Värld Guldknappen Accessoar 2014, which went to Angela Martarelli for The Case Factory.

Since 1982, Swedish women's magazine Damernas Värld has given out the fashion designer prize Guldknappen (The Golden Button) to top Swedish designers. The award was established to promote, support and put focus on Swedish fashion, and this year was given out for the 33rd time. Since 2010, a category for accessories has also been included. Clothes and accessories from the winners automatically become part of the permanent collection of the Nordic Museum, Sweden's foremost collector of clothing.

On the main prize for Roland Hjort, the jury wrote:
Finally, many are no doubt saying. After 15 years with a strong presence in Swedish fashion, it's time for jubilation - and time to win Damernas Världs Guldknappen 2014. The brand is marked by contrasts in tailoring and is understated. This well-established name in fashion gets his inspiration from art and music, with a nod to the style of the 1960s. We congratulate Roland Hjort, who has found his roots and made the classic Whyred style more relevant than ever.

On the accessory prize, the jury wrote:
Almost no one leaves home without it.  It's visible everywhere and technologically speaking, has it all. And you use it every six minutes every day. Cellphones are in fact our most beloved accessory. This year's winner of Damernas Värld Guldknappen Accessoar has successfully taught us how important an attractive case is. With solid expertise in the handling of leather, tasteful packaging and a confident eye for international trends, The Case Factory has gotten us to love exclusive cellphone cases.

The jury consisted of Martina Bonnier, editor-in-chief and fashion director for Damernas Värld/DV Mode; Pär Engsheden, designer and purveyer to the royal court; Emilia de Poret, artist and fashion icon; Lisa Pettersson, fashion editor for Damernas Värld/DV Mode; and Columbine Smille, fashion blogger and fashion director, STYLEBY.

Jane Leibrock, UX research manager at Facebook and Isabelle Olsson, lead designer for Google Glass know all about breaking boundaries. The two join Nico Pitney, VP of Product at the Huffington Post, civil rights activist Bryan Stevenson and many more at Bonnier’s annual GRID inspiration summit, where "Breaking Boundaries" is the theme. GRID, held Sept. 8-9 in Stockholm, gathers some 250 Bonnier employees to hear speakers from around the world talking on a range of topics.

“The list of speakers actually forms a narrative in itself,” says Stefan Mehr, curator for GRID. “It’s a mirror of the landscape of changes occurring in the world today that is affecting us in media, whether we like it or not.” 

Films from all the talks will be available on the GRID site following the event.

The full speaker list for GRID14

Steve Boyes - At the Heart of Wild Africa

The epitome of a modern adventurer and explorer, Steve Boyes is a fellow of both National Geographic and TED. The South African native is passionately trying to protect Africa’s last remaining wilderness. Using hi-tech tools to spur activism, he crosses the jungles of the Okavango Delta in his dug-out canoe while thousands of supporters follow him in real time on social media. A childhood fascination for wild parrots has him working tirelessly to prevent the real possibilities of the birds’ extinction.

Musical Guest: Ane Brun - Daring to Love

Starting out with just an acoustic guitar and a haunting voice, Norwegian musical artist Ane Brun has gained a huge following since her 2003 debut album, Making Time for Morgan. Whether accompanied by a string orchestra or rock band, singing her own songs or distinctive covers, the Stockholm-based music star attracts fans from all over the world. A climate awareness activist, in 2009 she organized the No More Lullabies concert to bring attention to the issue. At GRID, she’ll be singing a mix of songs plucked from different points in her eventful career.

Hugh Herr - An End to Disability

Hugh Herr was just 17 and one of the best climbers in America when a rock climbing accident resulted in the amputation of his legs. Following the accident, he did what doctors believed was unthinkable. Using prostheses he designed himself, he climbed to a more advanced level than he had before. Today he is Director of MIT Media Lab’s Biomechatronics group and an amazing scientist creating the next generation of bionic limbs and robotic prosthetics. His own joints are made using 3D printers and he believes in a near future in which disability is a mere memory.

Jane Justice Leibrock - The Rhythm of Facebook

User experience research manager Jane Justice Leibrock leads the work at Facebook with data analysts and product managers to identify the most important questions about how people want to share with their friends. Her own research has covered topics such as teenagers' behavior on Facebook, Facebook users’ privacy concerns and perceptions of the Facebook brand. On the side, she interviews stylish people on her blog and street fashion project “May I Admire You.”

Marc Kushner - Architecture to the People

A practicing architect in New York City, Marc Kushner divides his time between designing buildings and championing world-class architecture on the website he runs, Architizer. Both have the same mission: to reconnect the public with architecture. Kushner believes everyone is a fan of architecture, even if they don’t know it yet. New forms of media empower people to shape the built environment, and that means better buildings. Which make better cities. Which make a better world.

David Lagercrantz - From Zlatan to Salander

David Lagercrantz’ autobiography about Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimović was a runaway hit before it even came out in bookstores. I am Zlatan has been published in over 20 countries, with millions of copies sold. Reviewers hailed it as a future classic. Now Lagercrantz takes on an even gutsier challenge: to write the sequel to Stieg Larsson’s global phenomenon, the Millennium series, with more than 75 million books sold in 50 countries.

Sophia Lindholm - An Epic Split

Sophia Lindholm is the creative force behind the most epic of splits in advertising history: cult film actor Jean-Claude Van Damme's perfect horizontal split between two moving Volvo trucks. A senior art director at Forsman & Bodenfors –one of Sweden's leading ad agencies – she had to get people worldwide to talk about trucks. Not an easy thing. Today 70 million online viewers have seen the video. And the ad placed her in the top of Fast Company’s list of the Most Creative People in Business 2014.

Linda Liukas - Cracking the Girl Code

Linda Liukas from Finland has set out to inspire young women with technological knowledge to build awesome tools. She advocates technology as a world of beauty and possibility. When she launched a Kickstarter project to raise money for a children’s book, she got USD 380,000 within a few months. Rail Girls, her non-profit foundation, teaches programming to women around the globe. Liukas became interested in programming at age 13, when she built a fan site dedicated to her teenage crush, Al Gore.

Kerstin Mogull - The Art of Innovation in Media and Culture

Kerstin Mogull knows what it takes to reinvent esteemed institutions. For more than ten years, she held a number of senior roles at the BBC – working in policy, strategy, digital and operations. She was the driving force behind the iPlayer, BBC’s groundbreaking catch-up service. Recently she became the CEO of the Tate Museum in London, which includes both the Tate Modern and Tate Britain. Her task: to take this prestigious art collection into the digital age.

Jehane Noujaim - Storytelling at Tahir square

Prize-winning film director Jehane Noujaim grew up just ten minutes from Tahrir Square in Egypt. When massive protests erupted there in 2011, she knew she had to document what was happening. After two years and 1,600 hours of filming, enduring beatings and arrests, her unique documentary, The Square, won awards from Sundance to Hollywood, were it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary. Her previous film about news agency Al Jazeera, Control Room, was also a success. Now three journalists from Al Jazeera are jailed in Egypt. What happened to the revolution and the Arab Spring?

Isabelle Olsson - Make It Simple

Isabelle Olsson is the lead designer for Google Glass. High fashion and high tech may be worlds apart, but Swedish Isabelle Olsson was recruited to connect the two in one of Google’s biggest-ever product gambles. She had designed jewelry and furniture and not a clue about software engineering when she was recruited to Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s most secretive skunkwork. But it was her design experience that got her the job – to make Google Glass comfortable and beautiful.

Nico Pitney - Journalism Beyond Words

Nico Pitney, Vice President of Product at the Huffington Post, works closely with editor and founder Ariana Huffington to reach readers wherever they are. Pitney came to prominence in 2009 when he live-blogged the Iranian protest for HuffPo and was invited by President Obama as the first blogger ever at a White House press conference. Since then, he has held virtually every senior position at the world’s second-biggest news website, from national editor to managing editor.

Bryan Stevenson - Doing the Uncomfortable

Hailing from Montgomery, Alabama, Bryan Stevenson is widely acclaimed as one of the most effective public service lawyers in America. A Harvard Law School graduate, he has devoted his life to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu describes him as “America's young Nelson Mandela, a brilliant lawyer fighting with courage and conviction to guarantee justice for all.” Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative and has been largely responsible for reversals or reduced sentences in over 65 death penalty cases.

Tomas Franzén, GRID Host

This is the first time you will meet Bonnier’s new CEO, Tomas Franzén, and the first time he will have a chance to meet Bonnier’s hottest stars and key people. Expect him to talk about what direction he wants Bonnier to take for the future in his own 18-minute GRID talk. Tomas Franzén was CEO of leading Swedish cable and broadband provider Com Hem from 2008 to 2014. He has some 20 years of experience as a CEO in both publicly traded and private companies, but this is certainly his first GRID. He is very excited about it!

Andreas Ekström, GRID Moderator

Andreas Ekström is a staff writer at Sydsvenskan, a Bonnier-owned daily morning paper in Malmö in southern Sweden. He is author of six books, an outspoken columnist, a commentator and a speaker, often on the digital revolution. In 2013, he was a speaker at GRID as well as a TEDx speaker. His book Google-koden (The Google Code) got massive media attention in Sweden.

Nature lovers and technology do mix, especially when it comes to bird watchers and the new bird guide app Fågelguiden from Bonnier Fakta. The app, which was developed together with U.S./British publisher Harper Collins and app developer Touch Press, is available in Swedish, English and Norwegian.

We talked with Martin Ransgart of Bonnier Fakta about the app, which has been getting a lot of attention from bird lovers and nature organizations.

How did you decide that Fågelguiden would work well as an app?
The book has been a bestseller in print, with over 800,000 copies sold in Europe and translated into 15 languages. The book covers all of Europe and is considered one of the best field guides for European birds ever written. With an app, we can offer something extra in the form of birdsongs and videos of birds. And the comprehensive and complex information in the book becomes more easily available. In the app we’ve added search filters so if, for example, you search for “yellow bird, black head, in southern Sweden” you’ll get all the possibilities that fit the criteria.

The idea behind the app is that it should be easy to use and navigate, presented as beautifully as the book itself.

Who is the audience for the app?
Experienced birdwatchers and nature lovers who are interested in birds. The book’s appeal is strong, it’s the bible for serious birdwatchers while at the same time often found in the libraries of people who are simply interested in nature. The beautiful illustrations and authoritative facts have made it a hit throughout Europe. The app was launched two weeks ago in Sweden, England and Norway and it’s been a hit so far. A lot of people have been waiting a long time for it.

In England, the app was launched at the Rutland Bird Fair, the world’s biggest event for bird lovers. The next version will come out German, French and Dutch, and likely additional languages. The various publishers in each country will be involved in promoting the app.

You can download the app in Swedish, English here or Norwegian here.

Next Thursday, Stockholm’s Waterfront Congress will be teeming with some 3,000 entrepreneurs, programmers and others working with hungry startups – all attending Stockholm Tech Fest. The program, chock full of talks and panels from a wide range of business stars, tech experts and venture capitalists, has Bonnier as one of the sponsors and Bonnier Growth Media’s CEO Ulrika Saxon is on the roster to speak.

“Stockholm Tech Fest is a great opportunity for those attending to listen to talks from some of the hottest names in the tech industry that they wouldn’t normally be able to hear. We have come in as sponsors because we want to support and continue to see the tech scene thrive here in Sweden, and this is a great way to do it alongside our own Bonnier Accelerator program,” says Elisabeth Palombo, Vice President and Head of Bonnier Media University at Bonnier AB. “It also is a great way for us to meet digital talents, which we are always on the lookout for to work within Bonnier.”

Stockholm Tech Fest starts on Thursday, Sept. 4 with pre-events in the evening and continues through to Sept. 6. Find out more and register here.

Bonnier News is establishing a common business area executive team for its papers Dagens industri, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen. In conjunction with the change, Gunilla Herlitz, head of the Bonnier News business area, will take over as CEO for Dagens industri. The changes are effective October 1.

“With a common executive management for the business area, we’ll be able to better identify the possible areas where we can benefit from cooperating, such as in ad sales, digital development, IT, accounting and human resources,” says Herlitz.

Bonnier expects that the cooperation will make cost-savings possible, which will free up resources for investments that will result in an increased share of revenues from areas with sustainable growth. Henrik Stangel, current CEO for business daily Dagens industri, will be part of the new business area executive management, with overall responsibility for ad sales for the three newspapers. The newspapers will continue as separate companies, with individual executive management teams.

“The three papers have strong and distinctive individual journalistic products, and three strong editors-in-chief,” says Herlitz. “All three papers are profitable today and maintain a high journalistic integrity. From this position of strength, we’re now taking first steps toward changes that are essential for us to equip the newspapers for a future where revenues from print media are structurally declining.”

“When I started as CEO for Bonnier AB, we initiated a comprehensive strategy review,” says Tomas Franzén, CEO for Bonnier AB. “The changes we’re announcing now for the Bonnier News business area are the first results of this. The challenge for News in the upcoming years is to radically increase the share of revenues from areas with sustainable growth, while we ensure that we work in as smart and efficient a way as possible to continue to produce Sweden’s three best national daily papers.”

Southern Swedish dailies Sydsvenskan and Helsingborgs Dagblad, which are currently undergoing a broad long-term change process in the southern Swedish newspaper market, are not affected by the changes announced today. Gunilla Herlitz continues as board chair for Sydsvenskan/Helsingborgs Dagblad as well as printing group Bold.

In a major broadening of its horizons, Swedish film production and distribution company Svensk Filmindustri announced today a new agreement with French producer and distributor Studiocanal. We talked about the deal with Jenny Stjernströmer Björk, Executive Vice President Acquisition and Business Intelligence at Svensk Filmindustri.

Can you tell us about how you’ve come to the new agreement between Svensk Filmindustri and Studiocanal?
We’ve been looking for a strategic partner for both distribution and production and we think Studiocanal is top in its class. Their strong brand, incredibly exciting line-up and ambitious production department exemplify how to work in the future. So we are so proud that we were able to work this out.

What does the deal mean for Svensk Filmindustri?
There are several parts. On the production side, it means we have the opportunity to produce features directly for an international audience while at the same time cooperating with the talented development team at Studiocanal. Our output agreement means that we will distribute Studiocanal’s films in the Nordic market. With their amazing roster of films, we further strengthen our own line-up on the Nordic market.

What will we see in the future from the deal?
The first developments are two projects we will produce in cooperation – a remake of Easy Money, in English, and a new thriller titled The White Island, set on the Spanish island of Ibiza.

We're also developing two high quality TV-series – The Lawyer, based on a story by script writers Hans Rosenfeldt (The Bridge) and Michael Hjorth (The Condemned) in cooperation with Easy Money author Jens Lapidus. And drama series The Ambassador, with a story by crime novelist Henning Mankell. 

On the distribution side, the children’s film Paddington comes out in December and in 2015, five more Studiocanal titles will be released.

Read more in a press release.

With the mission to strengthen the digital transformation and product development from a group perspective, Anki Ahrnell will become Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at Bonnier AB. She will also be part of executive management. She comes most recently from Swedbank, where she has been Head of Digital Development. 

"I am very excited about with this great addition to our management team and believe that Anki Ahrnell's experience with managing digital products will be a valuable addition to Bonnier," says Tomas Franzén, CEO for Bonnier AB.

For the last 10 months, head of R&D Søren Prien and his team at Bonnier Publications in Copenhagen have been working non-stop on a project that gives Science Illustrated readers not just a little but a lot of something extra. The magazine has released four very different apps: a Science Illustrated archive app, a science news service app, an enhanced video app and a new quiz app called Daily Brainy.

“Our subscribers have long asked for access to all the old articles from the magazine, and we’re finally delivering on that in the form of a massive archive app that’s easy to download and easy to search,” says Prien.

The news service app will deliver current news in science, as well as the “Science Illustrated” take on important news events, with weekly updates to start with. The video app will feature videos from all over the web, chosen and curated by the Science Illustrated team and sorted into categories. “The videos will include clickable cut points, so you can get directly to the meat – or often the funny – part of the video without having to watch huge amounts of less relevant material,” says Prien.

Last but certainly not least is Daily Brainy. “It gives you the chance to challenge yourself with quizzes on a wide range of science subjects – you can collect points, get extra “brain snacks” when you get something wrong, and more,” says Prien. “Unlike our popular Quiz Battle app, it’s not about competing with others but about competing with yourself.”

But why does a magazine release apps?

“Right now, 80 percent of our revenues come from subscriptions,” says Prien. “But as we go digital, we see a big problem with how people value our product. The perceived value for the print magazine is USD 15, but for the online version it’s only USD 1. With the apps, we’re pushing up the perceived value.”

After ten months of work, Prien also has a few words of advice for other magazines that are expanding their brands with apps and other digital services. “You may think that the biggest challenges are the technology and the finances, but the toughest challenge is getting your organization to think differently. Editorial, IT, marketing, sales – everyone needs to be on the same page, it really means a transformation. And don’t forget, the launch isn’t the finish, it’s really the start of something you need to keep on developing.”

Find out more about the apps and download them here.

Tears and laughter, tension and excitement filled the room at Winterviken earlier this week when 250 people from around the Bonnier world gathered together to be inspired and get connected at the annual GRID conference. All at beautiful Winterviken, the old Nobel factory by the water outside Stockholm with amazing food from Swedish Masterchef judge Markus Aujalay. 

The theme was "Breaking Boundaries" - and the range of boundaries broken by the speakers was breathtaking. Civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson, whose calm demeanor belied the powerful and disturbing story he told of injustice, incarceration and the death penalty in the U.S., left many in the audience crying (see video here).

Linda Liukas charmed the audience with her evangelism in getting girls to code, and the power of crowdfunding, with a tale that challenges our ideas of book publishing (see video here).

Dina Amer, who as a reporter witnessed the revolution firsthand at Cairo's Tahrir Square and experienced the disappointment as hope turned sour, exhorted the audience not to forget the journalists who saved her life who are now languishing in an Egyptian prison - and all journalists imprisoned around the world (see video here). 

With a heavy focus on the incredible innovations affecting the media - and everyone else - there were talks from Isabelle Olsson on the design behind Google Glass, from Nico Pitney on the digital success of the Huffington Post, and Jane Justice Leibrock on the big and small data that Facebook uses to shape the user experience, plus many more. Participants also broke into small groups for three hours in a workshop, the "Future Media Innovation Game."

The summit ended with a powerful speech by Bonnier CEO Tomas Franzén on the future. 

"One of the best things was meeting so many of the very smart people that work for Bonnier companies in totally different parts of the entertainment industry and finding that we had a lot in common," says Sara O'Connor of Hot Key Books in London, who attended GRID for the first time this year. "Then, I was like a squealing fan girl when I got to sit down to lunch with the exuberant Linda Luikas after her inspirational and motivating talk about getting young people excited about coding."

You can see videos of the speakers at Bonniergrid.com. To see photos from the conference, check out the Bonnier GRID Facebook page and Instagram.

Book lovers in Finland now have something that gives them the best of both worlds: deep content about the book world combined with speedy news and opinions from social media. It's #kirja, a brand new website launched by book publishers WSOY, Tammi, Johnny Kniga, Gummerus, Siltala, Teos, CrimeTime and Paasilinna. More publishers will join the service during the fall.

“Finally we have a service which combines literature-related web contents and real-time conversation in social media,” says Bonnier Books Finland CEOTimo Julkunen.

The service #kirja - it means book - connects people with books, and the goal is to inspire new readers. The new #kirja provides reading tips, user reviews, current topics and articles, information on authors and their work, information on book events and offers, as well as guides users to explore online bookstores.

The #kirja service brings under one roof literature topics and hot debates covered in social media. And the service is open for all - anyone who wants can have constant influence and be part of the conversation, just by creating web content using the #kirja hashtag.

“The service enables book lovers to become a part of the community comprised of authors and readers," says Johanna Snell, #kirja Project Manager and Development Manager. "Occasional readers can for example find literature gift guides for Father’s Day and Christmas.” 

Last week showed new records in traffic for Swedish afternoon newspaper Expressen, with mobile site showing 3.5 million unique viewers - a substantial increase over the previous record was 3 million.

Expressen's desktop site also had a record, likewise with 3.5 million unique viewers.

"These are incredibly inspiring numbers for Expressen," says Thomas Mattsson, editor-in-chief. "Not only have we increased reads of the mobile site by 291 percent compared to the previous year, which one typically compares with, but also we broke the record from the previous week by 15 percent, and that was an election week.

"Expressen continues to increase traffic on its desktop site, and we're alone in that for the big players. The cannibalization of the desktop, which is common in this industry when mobile sites grow, hasn't affected us yet.

"We've increased traffic during the entire year, with mobile site growth averaging 142 percent. And even without our latest launch, Omtalat, it would have been a record and that's why we're confident about the future. Expressen's mobile site will be established with much higher traffic levels than today."

Bonnier AB has recruited three new key people to senior management. Jan Lund will serve as new Director of Business Development and Strategy, and Niklas Hydén has been appointed Purchasing Manager and Program Management Officer. As announced earlier this month, Anki Ahrnell will be the new Chief Digital Officer.

“We stand at the starting point for a change process, during which over the next three years we need to dramatically increase our digital revenues to offset declining revenues in traditional media channels,” says Tomas Franzén, CEO for Bonnier AB. “I’m pleased that we’ve hired three top people for these important positions. They will strengthen Bonnier AB’s ability to centrally impact our product development and digital transformation.”

Anki Ahrnell will take over as Chief Digital Officer at Bonnier AB with the mission to strengthen the digital transition and product development from a Bonnier-wide perspective. She is currently Director of Digital Development at Swedbank, where she previously served as head of marketing and online sales. Prior to that, she has held senior positions at Lowe Brindfors, Cambridge Technology Partners and IBM Sweden.

As Purchasing Manager and Project Management Officer with responsibility for continuous follow up of the implementation of Bonnier’s strategy, new hire Niklas Hydén has 15 years’ experience in change management, primarily in media and telecoms. He most recently was responsible for Accenture’s Nordic management consulting operations within media.

Jan Lund will be the new Director of Business Development and Strategy. With many years of experience within media, he most recently has been head of strategy for MTG’s Nordic pay-TV operations. Prior to that, he was head of strategy for MTG Sweden, where he worked with the development of MTG’s lineup of TV channels, pay-TV services and digital media. He has worked previously as well as an analyst for Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.

“Anki Ahrnell’s experience in running digital product development will be invaluable as we face big investments in technology to develop our digital advertising offer and our utilization of customer data, among other things,” says Franzén. “Niklas Hydén will have the responsibility of ensuring we achieve the large cost-savings that central coordination of our purchasing makes possible, as well as following up to make sure that we realize the ambitions we set in our strategy.

“Jan Lund is well-known for his creative and clever business development work, with long experience in change management, not least within broadcasting and digital.”

Anki Ahrnell and Niklas Hydén will assume their posts by the end of the year, while Jan Lund will start during spring 2015.

“Real-time reporting is ever more important,” says Thomas Mattsson, editor-in-chief for Swedish daily Expressen. Especially when it comes to important events like Sweden’s recent national election. “We started our election-day coverage this year on Expressen TV already at 7 in the morning – an hour before the polls opened – and broadcast live throughout the day and on into the wee hours of the morning.”

Months ago, the Swedish elections were looking to be a sure win for the opposition center-left coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and the Left party. But in the last weeks, everything changed and election day turned out to be a nail-biter, with higher than usual voter turnout, far thinner margins than expected for most parties and despite a win for the left, a huge increase for the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats.

For Bonnier’s news organizations covering the election, the responsibility to inform voters about the candidates and the parties’ positions became even greater in this age of Twitter and on-demand TV.

This meant breaking boundaries as never before. Like Expressen’s webcast of its own candidate debate live – and in an unusual twist, an exchange with its rival afternoon paper, Aftonbladet, with both papers showing each other’s broadcasts. This was the first time ever that Swedish newspapers had live webcast debates.

“Expressen TV is an important part of the paper’s journalism on digital platforms,” says Mattsson. “We want to continue to be a paper that has the most comprehensive coverage of national politics, but that requires that we inform our audience continuously via live TV.”

For national daily Dagens Nyheter, this kind of essential webcasting included the two main candidates sitting for extensive interviews broadcast live with Editor-in-Chief Peter Wolodarski.

In southern Sweden, daily Sydsvenskan expanded its coverage in a whole different direction: Already before summer, the paper recruited “citizen” translators so it could provide comprehensive news during election week not just in Swedish, but in the seven other most commonly spoken languages in the region. And in Göteborg, newspaper GT was key in pushing for a referendum on a commuter tax that made it to the ballot.

And at business daily Dagens industri, along with its usual intensive coverage of teh election, the paper for the first time took part in the annual political meeting in Almedalen, with its own tent and program.

On the broadcast side at TV4, along with news coverage, debates and other traditional and not-so traditional coverage both on scheduled TV and on the web, the channel sponsored its own get-out-the-vote campaign aimed at young voters as part of its 15-year-old Nollrasism (no to racism) project.

But for Mattsson, the election brought out the best not just in the paper, but in fellow media at Bonnier. “Expressen was founded to oppose Nazism, and our journalistic mission is to fight xenophobia,” he says. “We were turned out of the Sweden Democrat’s campaign headquarters on election day because of our advocacy. Something that had never happened before and all of Sweden’s biggest media players – including Dagens Nyheter, TV4, Dagens industri and Sydsvenskan– supported Expressen to provide coverage anyway, and I’m thankful for that.”

A magazine about books, an event series. That's Books & Dreams, something totally different for Swedish readers. Bonnierförlagen is the main partner, but the magazine covers books from all publishers. Along with the magazine and events, Books & Dreams also has a podcast and book bloggers on its website.

"Books & Dreams is a holistic approach, and the readers interact in different ways," says Carina Nunstedt, editor-in-chief and founder.

With new channels and concepts, they reach out to booklovers of all ages. And since its start in 2012, interest has only grown.

"The response has been overwhelming," says Nunstedt. Tickets to the author nights - which include a light meal, wine, prizes and goodie bags - are always sold out. In response, Books & Dreams has started a tour to middle-sized cities throughout Sweden during the fall. And in summer 2015, they take it a step further with Crime Time Gotland.

"It's a large international detective fiction festival on Gotland that we're starting in cooperation with Blixten & Co and Region Gotland," says Nunstedt. The festival will be held for four days in August, with both Swedish and international authors participating.

"Books are needed more than ever to provide context, great stories help us relax and think big thoughts," says Nunstedt. "I nag my sons all the time to read. Today, every third Swede dreams of having a book published, and there's huge interest in meeting authors live and hear what they think about books, in terms of both writing and life as an author."

Books & Dreams in a Nutshell

Author nights are held five times a year in Stockholm and Göteborg.

During fall 2014, Books & Dreams tours with author nights in Växjö, Halmstad, Karlstad, Västerås and Gävle. Popular authors taking part include Camilla Läckberg, Denise Rudberg and Dogge Doggelito, among others.

Crime Time Gotland takes place Aug. 13-16, 2015.

Read more:

www.booksdreams.se
www.crimetimegotland.se

Cecilia Beck-Friis has been named chief digital officer for Bonnier’s Broadcasting business area. Beck-Friis will continue as executive vice president for the TV4 Group. As new CDO for Broadcasting, she will be working with the same tasks that she currently has at the TV4 Group. This includes business development, strategy, technology and digital transformation, with overall planning for the entire business area. Plus, she will be responsible for finding new ways to cooperate and concentrate resources.

A new team has been appointed for three papers under Bonnier's business area News. The team will consist of Pär Roosvall, responsible for customer revenues; Eva Stoppel, CFO; Henrik Stangel, responsible for advertising sales; Charlotte Svensson , responsible for IT and digital development; and Magnus Janson, responsible for HR.

Senior management for News will also serve as management for the three papers, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Dagens industri - along with each paper's respective editor-in-chief and financial director.