Strong Finnish

Hello Bonnier friends and employees worldwide. My name is Michael Goesele and I am the Art Director of Destination Weddings & Honeymoons Magazine in Bonnier's Winter Park, FL office. As part of the GROW program, I have come to Helsinki, Finland to work on the launch of a new women's interest publication entitled Evita. From its rich cultural past to its creative community, Helsinki is a treasure trove of adventures waiting to be discovered. Already within the first 10 days of this amazing journey, it has become quite clear that this experience will enable me to have a much greater insight into the inner workings of the magazine publishing industry in Europe and beyond.

Bonnier Publications OY Finland is a company filled with an amazingly dedicated and welcoming group of individuals. Virve (head of HR) has been kind enough to organize meetings/presentations for me with all the various departments within the company. From the ground up, we started with logistics and distribution, how the various Bonnier branches work with one another throughout the Nordic countries. Then we progressed to marketing and subscriptions for both their own brands, as well as the numerous cross border titles which Bonnier licenses (Nat Geo, Science Illustrated, etc.). Onto sales (which was very intriguing in our current economic climate), where we talked about how to entice prospective advertisers through new and innovative ways. Everything from planned events, where the advertisers get face time with the brands' thousands of readers, to special inserts and custom covers for sale in the clients' stores. Everyone has been super forthcoming in letting me ask any and all questions, large and small, as they come to mind.

A fascinating statistic: per capita, Finland creates more magazines than any other country in the world! This all seems to make perfect sense when you hear that Finns read more than the average individual. Which brings me to Bonnier Publications OY's very own brands: Olivia, Divaani and soon-to-be newcomer Evita. Let's first start by saying the competition is stiff. Divaani, their shelter publication, has not 1 or even 5 top competitors but at least 10! In the short time in which it has been around (a bit over a year), it has already caused quite a stir, making the larger publishing houses rethink their own approach from content to design to overall execution.

Olivia has also had much of the same impact in its target market. I truly believe that this is one overarching aspect of Bonnier companies worldwide-we employ passionate individuals, work with a streamlined and tight staff, all while thinking outside the box with our budgets, which enables us to compete effectively with larger publishers everywhere. Not only that...but I have seriously become convinced that when the staff size grows too large there inevitably starts to be a lack of ownership. This may not be the rule, but by and large it creates an atmosphere where everyone resides only in their own small world, not as a cohesive unit. Magazines are living, breathing entities which constantly need to evolve in order to keep their relevance/focus while engaging the viewer in an ever growing and competitive visual field.

As the famed business author, Miriam Beard, once stated: "Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." Which is exactly what the GROW program is enabling us all to do.

Slide show: Strong Finnish