Bonnier Corporation Reviews

Pros

Talented support staff. Beautiful magazines.

Cons

Increased amount of turnover and decrease in benefits and rewards. Poor morale. Tendency to underpay.

Pros

Flexible in terms of hours and creativity.

Cons

Lack of investment in company growth; poor communication from upper management.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more. Execute stated planes. Reward good performance.

Pros

If you don't mind disorganized chaos it's your place. They haven't got a clue nor a definition of what a process is not interest in the bottom line.

Cons

No advancement, no interest in making the company more efficient

Advice to Senior Management

Get a clue, really??? Change processes without stake holders like they don't exist?? Welcome back to the 80s

Pros

Great people
Nice office/atmosphere
World class print products
World class brands
Entrepreneurial
Decent healthcare
Decentralized (both pro and con): less red-tape and formality, keeps brands pure/strong

Cons

No funding or established process for supporting the entrepreneurial spirit/model, hence hundreds of ideas but little direction.
The industry is in a downhill slide, causing massive layoffs
Salary low for most positions (except sales and top tier management)
Morale low due to layoffs
upper management (all sectors) has had a rotating door for several years
no 401k match
Decentralized (both pro and con): leaving power largely with Publishers, Group Publishers, and VP Publishers. These people are usually former super-star sales reps with print & event experience, but no knowledge of digital, consumer marketing, brand management, business development, etc.
A grooming program should have been in place long ago.

Advice to Senior Management

Good luck!

Pros

Learned some new technology
Senior video editors were knowledgable and nice
Easy work schedule

Cons

Somewhat routine tasks
Redundant work depending on what was going on at the time
Some employees were a little vulgar at times

Advice to Senior Management

Hire better spokespeople for you television shows that know what they are talking about.

Pros

Excellent work environment. Everyone is very chill and great to be around, the biggest thing that matters is that your work gets done, how you do it is really up to you. The dress is very casual, everyone listens to music, and no one is a stickler for staying at your desk all day.

Product. Bonnier has some really great product and being a part of it's development has been very satisfying. Whenever I saw the magazines or websites I always felt proud.

Learning/Gaining new skills. Bonnier does a great job of letting it's employees learn new skills and work with new tools. I left the company with an extensive amount of new knowledge and skills I didn't have before.

Cons

Pay. Unless your upper management it seems that everyone is really underpaid. And do not expect any raise beyond 1-2% a year (and even that is not guaranteed).

Promotion. This could depend on your individual manager but it seemed that moving up was very hard to do and almost discouraged to a degree. For the most part employees left their job in the same position they started at, and most people only stayed with the company for 2-3 years.

Advice to Senior Management

If employee satisfaction and loyalty is important than you have to pay at some point. The freedom within the work environment and the casual atmosphere is great but there seemed to be a ceiling to the general moral due to people always getting better offers elsewhere. All the good employees are eventually going to be working for your competitors.

Pros

Great editorial product
Award winning magazines
Attractive websites
Talented co workers

Cons

Extremly low pay
Poor commission structure
Company does not appreciate talent
Poor digital products
No creative ideas from senior or mid management

Advice to Senior Management

Your senior management has NO strategic plan to improve the digital products and increase print revenue. Many of the new senior managers and marketing people you have hired do not even understand the brands or the clients. Listen to your sales people they are in the field everyday speaking to your clients. Sales people = sales.

Pros

Some nice people
Ability to work fast/be nimble
Interesting brands/products

Cons

No strategy or vision
Horrible leadership
Terrible communication

Advice to Senior Management

Don't wait until your employees are so disgruntled that they resign to counter them to stay with $$ or advancement opportunities. Learn to communicate for god's sake.

Pros

Bonnier is currently seeking to be a leader in the growing population of digital publications. They are creating new and imaginative ways to reach readers and advertisers.

Cons

Due to the increased focus on digital they are vastly cutting many print related titles. Those that are involved in the print areas have an increasing feeling of worry about their jobs.

Pros

Great flexibility on working from home, laid back atmosphere, casual dress, ability to work in the fields you're passionate about.

Cons

Not the easiest place to advance.