After some turbulence within Bonnier concerning CEOs and chairmen of the board, the Swedish tabloid Expressen today announced Thorbjörn Larssons successor. Jonas Bonnier, most known from his years at Bonnier Magazines, will take over the chairmanship.

As news in itself it’s not up to much. But it is a clear signal that the inevitable power shift within Bonnier is about to happen. Bengt Braun out, Jonas Bonnier in. About time too.

One of the key points that made Jonas Bonnier successful at Bonnier Magazine Group (BMG) was the fact that he let magazines within BMG compete with each other. A classic face off – if an editor wanted to launch a cooking magazine and they already had one – so be it! May the best magazine win. Bold, and successful.

Applied to the world of daily newspapers this is unusual, at least in Sweden. Bonnier Newspapers said no to the idea of Metro because it would hurt DN and Expressen. So along came MTG and scooped it up instead. The rest is history.

If Jonas Bonnier is willing to make the same sort of strategic moves within the newspaper sector this could prove to be a very interesting time ahead. I think he will, and he would be the perfect person to take over in these times of free newspapers bubbling from all around.

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