Sep 04, 2014 08:00 UTC Bonnier News Musters Forces

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 Gunilla 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.

Bonnier is a multi-channel media group with companies and brands across 16 countries. Bonnier AB is wholly owned by the Bonnier family.