Fall Full of New Titles from Bonnier International Magazines

Magazines are on the upswing again. At least for Bonnier International Magazines, which premiered four new editions this fall - Science Illustrated in Estonia on Oct. 26 and in Russia on Sept. 26, History Illustrated in Germany on Oct. 13 and Popular Science in Sweden on Nov. 2.

"About a year ago, when the economy started to take a turn for the better, we noticed that publishers around the world were starting to plan for new launches," says Anders Malmsten of Bonnier International Magazines. "So we're seeing the results now. While both Estonia and Russia have been hit hard by the financial crisis, the magazine industry there is on the way up again."

Bonnier International Magazines markets existing titles within Bonnier magazines - Bonnier Publications in Denmark, Bonnier Tidskrifter in Sweden and Bonnier Corporation in the U.S. "We look for local companies interested in getting a license to publish their own versions of the magazines," says Malmsten.

What the companies get - in Estonia it's business daily Aripaëv, in Russia it's Bonnier Publications Russia, in Germany it's Family Media and in Sweden, Bonnier Publications - is a concept and content. "Plus a lot of knowledge on how the magazine is usually marketed," says Malmsten.

Every editorial team handles the content differently, of course, according to what works best for the local market in terms of the content, marketing and ad sales. "It varies greatly from magazine to magazine," says Malmsten. "Science Illustrated and History Illustrated are both titles that have a very global outlook editorially, so they don't need a lot of additional content and need mostly just a translation of the original articles. Popular Science is also very international, but it requires more in terms of adjusting the content to fit the local market."

Says Malmsten: "It's too early to tell what readers think, but we're excited that so many new magazines have been launched in a short time. And we think that 2011 will be even better thanks to the huge interest we now see for licensing our new Mag+ versions of the magazines for the iPad."