What we want.

Bonnier’s owner family has several aims. One is for the businesses to achieve a good financial return. This is also balanced against an idea of what the companies should stand for. Everything Bonnier does has its origins in book publishing and journalism and our companies play an important role in the development of literature, news, entertainment, information and advocacy. From the very beginning, when Gerhard Bonnier moved from Dresden to Copenhagen and opened his bookstore in 1804, entrepreneurship and business development have been just as natural a part of Bonnier as the literary and journalistic craft. The combination of commercial success and content of operations will continue to be fundamental to the way Bonnier does business. Bonnier will continue to develop as a long-term, profitable and family-owned company. Our companies must be leading journalistic and publishing operations that contribute to open and inclusive societies with free formation of opinion.

Over two centuries of storytelling, there have been many technological changes and the way in which we reach out to readers, listeners, viewers and users is always developing. We believe in quality, fact-checking and the search for truth, whatever the platform, and in responsiveness and transparency on those occasions when operations do not live up to these high ambitions. A diverse range of perspectives, communication of news and advocacy must be evident in the media, books and movies handled by the companies. Storytelling must be independent.

This means that the storytelling must also be independent of our owners. Bonnier’s liberal heritage does not give definitive answers on all the issues of the day, but provides scope for difficult conflicts of interest and divergent conclusions. However, there is also a limit to what is allowed within these parameters: Bonnier’s operations will never pursue agendas that diminish the individual or exclude groups from social community. Democracy, the equal value of all and the fundamental freedoms and rights of everyone are our unshakeable foundation.

In recent years Bonnier’s companies have invested heavily in the future, not least in technological development. The Group will continue to develop as a long-term, family-owned corporate group based on its historical core; with real estate and with ambition to grow even outside traditional areas through investments that could become new and additional core operations. We will continue to develop journalistic operations, at a time when professional and independent journalism is more important than it has been in a long time. We will continue to develop our book business, as one of the leading publishers in northern Europe. We have a broad ownership base with total support for these aims.

When we succeed this is a fantastic expression of what we want Bonnier to be; an association of enterprise and a desire to contribute to an inclusive knowledge society where every individual is given the opportunity to participate and have their voice heard.