Bonnier “sold 20 million copies in various formats, which was a decrease of 7%, with physical books accounting for the entire decline.
Sweden’s Bonnier has reported a negative operating result for the first time in ten years, caused by one-off costs from a tax dispute.
That’s per Sölve Dahlgren over at Boktugg, whose assessment of the Bonnier report I’m going to lazily cherry-pick from, as it’s accompanied by commentary from Bonnier CEO Mattias Fyrenius.
For the juicy accounting details, if that’s your passion, follow the link and you won’t be disappointed – there’s even the background to the aforementioned tax dispute. But this being TNPS, I’ll try tease out the salient points as relate to digital, and hope Google Translate hasn’t made a hash of things.
What must be noted is that sales were down for Bonnier in 2022, compared to 2021- a pattern we’re seeing pretty much everywhere as the Pandemic bounce recedes, so no real surprise there.
But this is where it gets interesting: Per Dahlgren, Bonnier “sold 20 million copies in various formats, which was a decrease of 7%, with physical books accounting for the entire decline. Something that in turn can explain the reduced turnover. Digital revenue accounted for 38% of the publishing group’s revenue, which is an increase from 2021’s 33%.” (Don’t tell Markus Dohle.)
Bonnier CEO Fyrenius notes that’s “a small increase, but definitely a slowdown. We hope to see growth on a full-year basis, but it is far from the double-digit growth figures we have seen historically. In addition, we see how Storytel acts in a different way and highlights its own publishers’ titles more.”
That’s a Nordic saga I’ve not had time to track here on TNPS, but essentially the assertion is Storytel algorithms are said to be favouring its own content over that of rival publishers, which taps into another ongoing dispute between Nextory and Storytel, and separately the relationship between Bonnier-owned BookBeat and Storytel, which again local conditions have forced me to neglect lately. Check out the Boktugg archives for full coverage of those issues.
On audiobooks at the wider level, Fyrenius says, “We have never paid out as much in royalties to our authors as now.”
#Swedenbookmarket #Swedenpublishing #Nordicspublishing #Scandinaviapublishing
