Life At Bonnier - Australia

Meet Saira Valibhoy

By Tora Bonnier on 2011-07-04
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GROW participant Saira Valibhoy gets in a lot of walking as she switches from Sydney, Australia to Chichester, U.K.

If you ask Saira Valibhoy, she'll tell you that the saying is true about the U.K.:"if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes." And this has been the biggest challenge for the GROW participant from Sydney, Australia. "I had been advised that I would be coming in the summer, looking forward to lots of hot sun," she says. "But it has been cloudy, rainy and definitely cold and windy.

Meet Beatrice Hellman

By Bert Menninga on 2010-11-11
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Beatrice Hellman, art director at women's magazine Damernas Värld in Sweden, has flown the coop – she's now in Sydney, Australia as part of GROW.

Beatrice Hellman has worked magazine design for 10 years. She normally works as art director for Damernas Värld, a job that requires planning the magazine together with other editorial staff, assigning illustrators and photographers and overseeing the overall layout of the magazine.

Five Mile Press Wins With Barbie

By Bert Menninga on 2010-09-20
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Mattel awarded its Licensee of the Year to Five Mile Press for its Barbie collection. The publisher won for most outstanding sales growth and development over the past 12 months.

She may be 51, but Barbie doesn't look a day over 19. The world famous doll - it's estimated over a billion have been sold - is one of the major licensed brands of Australian publisher the Five Mile Press. The company first started with the Barbie brand in 2008. A mere two years later, the Five Mile Press was awarded Licensee of the Year by Mattel, the originators and owners of the Barbie brand. The award was given to the company for the most outstanding sales growth and performance over the past 12 months.

Meet Stephanie Tang

By Tora Bonnier on 2010-07-02
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Experiencing a new culture was key for GROW participant Stephanie Tang.

What surprises Stephanie Tang most about the Sydney office of Weldon Owen is how diverse the culture is. "One of my co-workers says we're like the UN," says Tang. She is participating in the GROW program, working for three months as a designer for Weldon Owen's Discovery Education books. Tang's regular job is at Weldon Owen Inc. in San Francisco, where she has worked for the past three and a half years as a senior designer.

Meet Lena Thunell

By Bert Menninga on 2010-04-07
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Bonnier Carlsen designer learns to work the opposite way on the other side of the earth.

Lena Thunell is a graphic designer at Bonnier Carlsen, where she came after starting out in the travel industry. At Weldon Owen in Sydney, Australia, as a GROW participant she is now working on a project that the publisher is putting out together with Discovery Education: the design of 64 titles, each with 32 pages and written for 10-13 year olds.

Kristin Mack Alnaes: The wonderful world of Oz

By Kristin Mack Alnaes on 2009-12-15
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Our Norwegian GROW ambassador Kristin says farewell to Sydney with a top 5-list of things to do.

Two weeks ago was my last day at Weldon Owen. My three months in Sydney are like a cheerful and educational bubble that I will always treasure. Thank you, Bonnier, for giving others and me such an opportunity!

Kristin Mack Alnaes: A hidden story

By Kristin Mack Alnaes on 2009-11-19
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Our Norwegian GROW ambassador Kristin has just discovered one of Sydney Harbour's well-kept secrets.

Even though Oslo (capital of Norway) only has 1/8 of the population of Sydney, I never feel lost in the big city. The similarities between the two cities are obvious. Sydney has got the features of a big city, like reasonable and taller skyscrapers, eight lanes freeways and 24/7 nightlife. And yet everything that I love about the town that I have lived in almost all my life, also can be found in this far away metropolis (today's dose of marketing Oslo and Sydney). The nature is just on the doorstep of the city.

Kristin Mack Alnaes: Merry November!

By Kristin Mack Alnaes on 2009-11-09
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Kristin from Norway tells us why November is a great month down under – and why half of the nation is dressed in moustaches.

Usually I look forward to November only for one single reason; my birthday. Beyond that the second to last month of the year is dull, dark and depressing. November in Australia is a wonderful contrast.

Firstly, it is not raining permanently, even though the humidity is high. Secondly, November down under has something to offer that no other months have; a nation that stops. And a nation (or at least half of the nation) dressed in moustaches.

Need to know more?

Kristin Mack Alnaes: Crave the light-hearted being

By Kristin Mack Alnaes on 2009-10-23
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Kristin, our Norwegian GROW blogger, realizes that she laughs everyday — thanks to the World's Funniest City.

Primarily to avoid any kind of misunderstanding: I miss my husband while I am here in Sydney. I feel guilty for leaving him behind in Norway just a couple of weeks after we got married. I also miss my dog and her soft white fur. It seems that I have forgotten that she regularly likes to give herself a spa treatment in mud — and in similar brown elements she can find in nature...

Despite all this, Sydney offers several reasons not to dig a deep hole of loneliness and misery. Not least, there are quite a few opportunities to laugh.

Kristin Mack Alnaes: Engrossed by the book fair

By Kristin Mack Alnaes on 2009-10-09
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Kristin from Norway is preparing for the Frankfurt Book Fair – and breeding crocodiles.

Being a packaging publisher, Weldon Owen's main objective is to develop and produce books. For that reason, the book fairs in Bologna, Frankfurt and London are of crucial importance. The next one coming up is in Frankfurt, 14-18th of October. New printed books are being launched, and innovative titles are being proposed. A lot of energy goes into developing prototypes that will be used to attract clients worldwide who might want to publish actual books from those prototypes.