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Maria Curman will be stepping down as CEO for Bonnier Books at the end of 2011 after ten years as CEO.

Photo: Dawid

Maria Curman will be leaving her position as CEO of Bonnier Books and will be focusing instead on her work as a Bonnier board member. As a result, Bonnierförlagen CEO Jacob Dalborg will be taking on responsibilities for Bonnier's Finnish and Norwegian operations within books, and Bonnier Media Deutschland CEO Hartmut Jedicke will become the new board chair for Bonnier Publishing in the U.K.

Read more here.

 

 

Nobel Prize to W&W and Tammi

Herta Müller, whose books in Swedish are published by Wahlström & Widstrand and in Finnish by Tammi, is this year's Nobel laureate in literature.

It was the German-Romanian author Herta Müller who received this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. She is described as "a prolific novelist and essayist whose works depicting the human devastation of the Romanian dictatorship and the rootlessness of political asylum."

Her Swedish publisher Wahlström & Widstrand are obviously very pleased today.

"We had a hope," says Martin Stromberg at Wahlstrom & Widstrand. "But you can never be sure."

The Dan Brown Code

On October 21st, what is perhaps the most eagerly awaited book of the year will hit Swedish bookstores. Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, the sequel to The Da Vinci Code, sold over one million copies in the U.S. in its first day on the shelves. In Sweden, more than 275,000 copies have already been pre-ordered. But it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing up to this point.     

You don't have to speak with many people in the book world to understand that nothing has been the same since The Da Vinci Code. The novel, published in 2003 (2004 in Sweden), has sold 80 million copies worldwide — 1.1 million in Sweden alone. Over 700,000 of these were in hardback, making it by far Sweden's bestselling hardback book of all time. Now, five years later, the sequel has finally arrived.

Thienemann launches new imprint

The German book publisher Thienemann launches a new imprint - Planet Girl - addressing girls and young women.  

For many years, the German publishing house Thienemann has been publishing childrens' and young adult books. Thienemann is especially known for the notably successful series 'Cheeky girls - cheeky books': about 8 million copies have been sold in Germany up to now.

Richard Johnson becomes CEO of Bonnier Publishing

Richard Johnson has been appointed CEO of Bonnier Publishing. Richard has been acting CEO for the past six months in addition to maintaining his role as CFO, a position he has held for the past four years.

He was formally Finance Director of Autumn Publishing which now forms part of Bonnier Publishing.

Maria Curman, chairman of Bonnier Books said 'I am delighted that Richard has agreed to take on this role. His considerable knowledge of Bonnier and the companies that make up Bonnier Publishing will I am sure help him grow and develop the business. Bonnier is committed to Children's book publishing and to growing its position in the English language markets. This position is key to the development of that strategy '

In the News

Bonnier Publishing U.K. has a new interim CEO; Bonnier Corporation's Saveur magazine shows major ad page gains in April 2009.

Richard Johnson

BOLOGNA, ITALY—Des Higgins will be leaving his position as CEO of Bonnier Publishing at the end of March after a 6 year involvement with the group.

"I have very much enjoyed my time with Bonnier, but after a number of years as CEO, it was time for a fresh challenge," said Des.