Jonas Bonnier, the jolly novel-writing golden child of the Swedish media conglomerate Bonnier AG, has announced that come December 2013 he will step down as the CEO of Bonnier’s global business and focus on being chairman of the board of Bonnier Corp., the company’s US-based arm that he helped create in 2006 when he bought 49 percent of World Publications and 17 Time4 Media magazine titles (including Transworld Media).
Since that “merger” things have not gone particularly well for Bonnier Corp, especially after the exit of CEO Terry Snow, according to a story on FolioMag.com.
In an effort to exit markets where its brands weren’t number-one or number-two, the company sold its snow sports titles to Active Interest Media in April, Parenting and Babytalk to Meredith earlier this month, and its TransWorld enthusiast brands to Source Interlink a week later.According to 2012 Bonnier AB financials, 6 percent of revenues are based in the U.S. Overall magazine revenues for the parent company totaled $746 million in 2012. . . “For my own part, I’m looking forward to being even more actively engaged as chairman of the board for Bonnier Corporation, our U.S. operations,” said Jonas Bonnier in a statement.
And who wouldn’t be excited about being shipped off to the colonies to oversee a comparatively tiny piece of the company you used to run? Guess that’s what happens when you convince your family to invest $600 million in print media in 2007. Or, maybe, Jonas’ five year term behind the wheel was simply up and he’s going to let one of his cousins take the company for a little spin.
[Link: Folio Mag]
