NOVEMBER 2008
Who is TrustNordisk? Page 05 Merger Pitfalls Page 06 Less work for DHL Page 11
When the letter arrives from the Egmont Foundation / Page 08-09
How Nordisk Film won Good Morning and Good Evening Denmark / Page 11
To divisions merging But we don’t expect everyone to hug yet / 02-03 65 years with Easy Readers Page 12
Merging two divisions In a few weeks Egmont International and Egmont Kids & Teens will become one division. I will use this opportunity to draw a sketch of what the future will bring for everyone in the coming division. By going for growth we invest in projects that have great potential. At the moment we are practicing and getting better at developing new ideas and transforming them into viable projects. In Norway and Sweden we have created and acquired some interesting online platform which we will evaluate for a potential roll out in relevant markets. With a merged division, an obvious challenge lies in defining where we can create synergies and benefits. We will look into successful products throughout the division and will consider to launch them across the division if they offer an interesting opportunity. As we are lazy in profession “not invented here” is not our attitude. We will look forward to realize these benefits and synergies to it’s full potential. The strategy in the new division will continue to focus on holding strong key positions
within kids media. But when target groups decline and we see a shift from print to electronic media, this poses a new situation in many parts of the new division, where we will have to act like Uncle Scrooge on our costs while thinking outside the box. In order to be in a healthy position to invest in new projects and innovative ideas we will need to make even stronger efforts to drive out cost from our core business. First of all, we will establish a Chinese hub for gimmicks, because we want to be in charge of our sourcing, we want a better control with our code of conduct and of course we also want to be in control of pricing and quality assurance. So next year, we are establishing a hub in Hong Kong and we plan to achieve substantial savings from this operation. After all, each year we source 175 million gimmicks to children all over the world. The hub will have to work closely with local Egmont companies as these will continue to be in charge of all creative decisions. We also have a challenge with several companies which are loss making. We need to make these
A united front is vital The new division to be launched in January will have a familiar figure at the helm of its financial management. HardCopy met the new division’s future chief financial officer. By Niels Almer / Corporate Communications / nal@egmont.com
When Henrik Højsholt Nielsen assumes the role of chief financial officer of Egmont International, the new division to result from the merger between Kids & Teens and Egmont International in January, half the division will already see him as a familiar face. Henrik will have to acquaint himself with procedures in the Nordic region, but this will not necessarily cause him any sleepless nights.
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“Although the two division’s markets differ somewhat, both divisions sell essentially the same products, and it simply makes good sense to work together as a single unit,” he says. “One of our immediate challenges is to manage two divisions, each with its unique culture. We have to get the two divisions into synch, so right now I’m spending my energy on getting to know the management team and employees in the Nordic countries and
loss making entities profitable again and we are working on individual strategies to address this issue. Some organizational changes will happen in this area. In the mature markets we have professionally run and profitable businesses, that are experiencing a decline in core magazines. The challenge here lies in stopping the decline and/or adjust our cost base to be able to earn money with lower print runs. Further we will also review our creative centres around Egmont, and determine how to increase efficiencies and how to work together in the future. So while we see an important challenge in cutting costs in the new division also in the light of the economic crises, it is paramount to remember, that our division will not live from cost savings long term, but from investing into new and attractive projects as a sound platform for growth.
Frank Knau Executive Vice President in Egmont International
gaining an understanding of how the business is run.” Where do you start when faced with allnew responsibilities and an all-new division that has more than 1,700 employees and generates revenue of DKK 3.7 billion? “For the first months, I will be concentrating on identifying areas where we can benefit from being one division rather than two. For example, the two divisions have worked together in areas like Egmont Creative, but in many others Egmont International has stuck to a single production strategy, while Kids & Teens has taken a different approach.” Henrik suggests another example whereby the new division could use Serieforlaget’s online expertise in other parts of the division. However, financial management is not simple in a division tackling vastly different market challenges, as Henrik stresses: “Our markets in Eastern Europe, South-east Europe and Asia are growing, whereas the markets in the UK, Germany and the Nordic countries are saturated. So we have to handle two different tasks: keeping the growth markets on the right track and generating the capital base for growth while inventing new processes and optimizing the cost structure in the saturated markets.”
My customers don’t understand me! Do you sometimes feel like a mind reader having to guess what your customers are thinking and what they would like? If so, consumer interviews are the thing for you! Employees from Egmont International took a break from their daily grind to take part in a knowledge exchange session and hone their user survey skills. By Niels Almer / Corporate Communications / nal@egmont.com
It’s Thursday morning. A host of nationalities are assembled at a hotel in downtown Copenhagen. On an ordinary day, these people would be embroiled in a range of marketing challenges in Egmont International’s various companies. Today, however, everyone has put these jobs on the back burner and arrived for a creative session focusing on how to carry out a perfect consumer interview – and use the results innovatively. “I took a long lunch break to buy a magazine for my son,” says Dieter, who lives in a Hamburg suburb with his wife and two children. He is a fictitious character played by an actor. Idea managers from all over the International division practice conducting the perfect interview with a consumer. Shortly they will be asked to draw a profile of Dieter and use it to imagine a day in his life and understand his needs and preferences. What activities are actually associated with reading magazines? The purpose of the seminar is to put the customer at the center of the innovation process and use this insight to formulate the correct product missions, from the interview to the final articulation of the product’s value – a COSTAR pitch.
Geke’s good advice Facilitator Geke van Dijk offers the following do’s and don’t’s for conducting a productive consumer interview: DO make sure to find participants that match a special profile DON’T interview people you already know DO make sure the interview flows like a regular conversation DON’T take constant notes during the interview DO make sure to focus on specific examples of behavior – not attitudes DON’T suggest your own ideas during the conversation – ask about theirs DO make sure to take pictures along the way – that makes it easier to remember things later
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Every Egmont International company has an idea manager. His or her role is to grab hold of ideas together with the idea generator and to help qualify the idea and ask questions that will uncover its value.
The seminar was the first in which colleagues from Kids & Teens took part. This is one of the first hints of the upcoming merger between Egmont International and Egmont Kids & Teens.
The life of the fictitious interviewee Anja in words and pictures.
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When HR join forces Christine Aalstad Bækkelund is an HR partner at Kids & Teens. Dawn Cordy does the same job at Egmont International. In January they will start working together in the new division. One of their first tasks has been to answer a number of questions about the new organization, and their comments are summarized below. By Niels Almer / Corporate Communications / nal@egmont.com
In short, what will be HR’s guiding light in the new division? As Egmont’s vision and mission state: people matter! The new division is a great team of great people, and by joining forces, we believe we can handle the challenges ahead of us.
It seems as though Egmont International has spent a great deal of time working with innovation processes – how will you work with innovation in the new merged division? Both divisions have made a lot of progress on innovation in different ways - we’ll be looking to learn from each other and use the best of both approaches to strengthen our existing products, processes and businesses as well as looking out for new opportunities for growth and profitability.
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What seems to be the biggest challenge from supporting twice as many employees as before the merger? Actually, since both Dawn and Christine will work on HR issues (both being HR partners), the total HR capacity will remain unchanged. The new division will consist of 22-plus countries, so naturally the challenge will be to meet all the HR needs that help support all these businesses. Our aim will be to coordinate work without too much overlap and with focus on business priorities. We are now looking more closely into fields of responsibilities, and will communicate our findings to make them clear to the divisional team.
In terms of HR what can the Nordic countries learn from the rest of Egmont, and vice-versa? As for innovation – sharing experiences and learning from best practice. Keeping an open mind and focus-
ing on strengthening our business and making the most of new opportunities will help the new division find a common HR understanding.
In terms of HR how do you reconcile a cost-cutting strategy in large parts of the division with the division-wide vision of “going for growth”? As with any successful business aiming for longterm profitability, we need an organization that both is cost-effective and actively looks for growth areas; the two go hand-in-hand. HR strives to help an organization equip its people for the future by offering them management tools, training and development to improve our existing competencies and acquire new ones. As an organization we need to be ready to meet the ever-changing demands of our consumers and B2B customers, which are all the more challenging right now in light of the worldwide economic recession.
TrustNordisk: the best of both worlds The international sales company TrustNordisk is one of the first tangible results of the new collaboration between Nordisk Film and Zentropa. About six months have passed since the amalgamation of Trust Film Sales and Nordisk Film International Sales became a reality. HardCopy asked the managing director of TrustNordisk, Rikke Ennis, four pointed questions about the two competitors’ early days as colleagues.
TrustNordisk consists of (back row, left to right): Lene Bokelund (CFO), Lene Ulrich (CSI), Signe Rasmussen (Legal assistant) and Ditte Hollesen (PR & Marketing Manager) Front row, left to right: Marie-Louise Rasmussen (Sales Executive), Lissy Bellaiche (Festival Consultant), Rikke Ennis (CEO), Frederik Stege (Legal Manager), Susan Wendt (Head of Sales), Nancy Kjær (Sales Assistant), Thomas Mai (New Business) and Tine Klint (Head of Projects & Business Development) Absent: Nicolai Korsgaard (Sales Manager), Lise Harder (CSI), Helle Christensen (Accounting), Torben Smith (Procurement) and Ann-Sofi Hansen (Procurement)
Why did two former “rivals” in the sales market merge? “There’s no doubt that merging the two companies is the right way forward. In an increasingly competitive market driven by falling prices, and demanding power and visibility, we are stronger together. Nordisk Film has been a leader in sales of TV productions and family movies, while Trust has commanded a strong position in selling arthouse movies. Being able to use each other’s strengths and experience is a gift.”
What challenges have you met? “Because the merger has gone so well, our challenges are primarily sector-related: For example, how do we make sure that our myriad movies don’t drown among each other and the host of others on the market? Our answer is to categorize them under different labels. An
artistic film will typically be launched at a film festival as an ‘arthouse movie’. If it’s more mainstream and better suited to a television launch, it will appear under our ‘mainstream’ label and be sold on the major European TV markets. Nordisk Film has always been very strong as regards family movies, which would be marketed under the ‘family’ label.”
What challenges will you face in future? “We have to acknowledge that not all movies will make it to international movie theaters, so at the moment we’re looking at how to open other international doors for our titles. We have a strong focus on electronic distribution via VoD (Video on Demand), which we believe will replace DVDs before long. It’s thought-provoking that many Nordic movies have gained popularity in places like India, now that Indians can access them via VoD. We are way ahead of our competitors and will soon have a catalog of 500 movies for 50 platforms. Our close
collaboration with Amazon.com is one reason for this lead.”
Your offices are located in Filmbyen in Avedøre – does that mean your main links are with Zentropa? “Let me dispel all doubts about the merger: TrustNordisk is a JOINT sales company owned by Zentropa and Nordisk Film. Both co-owners have our complete loyalty. Although our offices are in Filmbyen, we are involved with everything that goes on in Valby. We enjoy visiting a slew of new colleagues, whose contented smiles show that Nordisk Film is a pleasant place to work. In future we will do even more to highlight our affiliation with both companies by putting news items about our work on Insight. You should also keep an eye open for the presentation of TrustNordisk’s employees, to be published shortly on Insight,” Rikke Ennis concludes.
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Merger pitfalls A year after the merger that led to the new Lindhardt og Ringhof, HardCopy met managing director Anette Wad and HR consultant Sophie Dam, who both played key roles in the process. How did the merger go and have they got any good advice to pass on to the rest of Egmont? By Niels Almer / Corporate Communications / nal@egmont.com
“I belong to the past,” Otto Lindhardt claimed when Anette Wad met him before the merger. Together with Gert Ringhof, Otto co-founded the company whose name continues in Denmark’s second-largest book publishing company.
In January two Egmont divisions will be amalgamated. In a large media corporation, mergers are daily fare, but bringing two companies together and integrating different cultures and different systems is no easy task. Over half of all mergers fail. Last year, Egmont’s Danish book publisher Aschehoug faced a challenging merger after its acquisition of the Bonnier publishing company. Books are still square, but that is about the only constant after the merger became effective. Lindhardt og Ringhof has become a much larger company, which means more executive levels. “We come from two companies with smaller cultures where quick workarounds were easier to implement because everyone knew everyone
“A merger is only a success once it earns money.” else. That just doesn’t work in a large organization like ours. It might sound dull, but you have to stick to routines more rigidly to generate more time for creativity. That’s been a real challenge so far,” feels Anette Wad. On the plus side Anette Wad believes the intensive internal communication has paid off. “Of course I don’t hear everything, but I have the clear impression that people throughout the company see Lindhardt og Ringhof as a joint project. The speed at which the two cultures could be made to interlock came as a great surprise to me,” she admits. Sophie Dam adds: “We prepared a multistage plan for HR that started with making managers the ambassadors for the merger. We took them on courses where they learned all about Egmont’s values, what we expect from managers, and good leadership principles. I visited the departments regularly to hold one- or two-day seminars focusing on such topics as cooperation, communication and well-being.”
Comprehensive planning is impossible The two HR partners believe a merger must be thoroughly planned if it is to succeed. “During the planning stage, we have to map both the communication strategy and the HR perspective in great detail. It took ages to plan, but once the merger was underway, our time proved well-spent,” Anette explains.
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However, minute planning is impossible because all the elements and consequences are hard to foresee at the outset. “We have just completed a series of minor adjustments that I consider post-merger adjustments. Although you can plan a lot, there is a limit. In the post-merger phase you do the things that weren’t fully planned from the start or that actually need to be rectified,” Anette Wad concedes. Integrating the IT systems was especially problematic, requiring a lot of manual work: “We were surprised at how complicated it was to integrate the various systems. In our day-to-day work this lack of integration forced us to spend a lot of time on manual routine tasks. Many tasks have been done by hand, and we have actually lost information. When two employees in the same department register things differently, data can get lost.”
From 2.0 to 3.0 – a better intranet Under the heading “Insight makes me work smarter” the present intranet has been examined from all angles, and a range of new initiatives and improvements have taken shape. HardCopy made the rounds of the test environment to see what is in store. By Thomas Sønderstrup / Corporate Communications / tst@egmont.com
Hard to measure success So, has the merger at Lindhardt og Ringhof been a success? “A merger is only a success once it earns money,” says Anette Wad. To date, the merger has had a negative impact on Lindhardt og Ringhof’s bottomline because of the high expenses related to staff, IT and external consultants. Furthermore, the EU’s sluggish approval process slowed down the publisher up to the important fall season. Anette Wad assesses that the company will have merger-related expenses until the end of 2009. “We have to view every merger in a long-term perspective. We will only reap the full benefits after three years,” she says. Sophie Dam adds that employee satisfaction should also be included in an assessment of the merger. For the same reason, the results of the first corporate analysis in the new company will be an interesting litmus test for Lindhardt og Ringhof.
Beware of internal mergers Anette Wad and Sophie Dam conclude with a piece of good advice about future mergers in the group: “If possible, delay system integration. Analyze what needs to be integrated and what doesn’t. You don’t need to worry about integrating everything at lightning speed.” Anette Wad also believes it is best to tackle internal mergers as though they were competitive mergers attracting worldwide attention. “I’ve been involved with mergers before, and what’s remarkable about this merger is the speed at which it was implemented. It’s far easier to merge with a competitor than with a company within your own group. The fact that it was an acquisition gave us more influence on the process. You could compare it to whether two friends or two siblings are moving in together. Even though we were buying a competitor, we had a professional friendship. As with sibling rivalries, jealousy and hidden agendas may play a role in internal mergers. It’s difficult to merge if the parties feel they are equally right.”
A group of programmers, business consultants and communications people are gathered round a computer, staring intently at the screen. The new Insight 3.0 is taking shape, and the project group is testing that everything is as it should be. Is the calendar working? Should we have a video on the homepage? And what about the new online People Finder? “It’s exciting watching everything we’ve discussed over the past year now materializing on the screen,” recounts Terese Nathan, Online Specialist at Corporate Communications.
Inspired by Facebook A cornerstone of Insight 3.0 is that the intranet should be a tool to support business process, promote the exchange of knowledge and strengthen the ties between professional groups and competencies at Egmont. “We have refined the phone book and improved ‘My Site’, employees’ personal page.
This is where employees will be able to make internal contacts within Egmont in the familiar Facebook format. The idea is for Insight 3.0 to create a framework for various fora such as a forum for graphic artists, one for PAs and one for managers.”
A natural next step We expect to launch Insight 3.0 just before Christmas, and although it will have loads of new features, we thought the tried-and-true elements from the current Insight 2.0 should be retained. “Insight 3.0 is not a revolution but a natural and constructive development of our intranet. We’ve taken the best from Insight 2.0 and enhanced it in a new and better format,” explains Terese, referring to the nomination of Insight 2.0 in 2006 as Denmark’s second-best intranet. Now we want to make it even better so everyone at Egmont can “work smarter”.
What’s new? A new and more intuitive top navigation bar makes it easier to find your way around Newspaper websites inspired the feature that allows you to comment on news articles Suggestions pop up when you key in search words in the phone book’s search field You can set up networks and blog – a little like on Facebook
Sales figures can be presented in simple, graphically attractive user interfaces You can easily recover documents deleted by mistake You can keep favorite pages in a personal collection of links Work processes can be automated with approvals and messages Everyone can set up and use project pages
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Every year the Egmont Foundation grants funds to projects to improve the quality of children’s and young people’s lives. The recipients of the grants are a mix of organizations, volunteers and local people dedicated to a cause. HardCopy visited a project shelved for want of support until a letter arrived from the Aid and Grants Administration of the Egmont Foundation.
When the Egmont Foundation sends a letter In two years, nine young people will join the adult ranks. They are the first to have taken part in the three-year Hilltop youth program for young autists. The school gives young people tools enabling them to be active in the labor market or take a supplementary continuing education program. The project originators had abandoned the idea because no-one would support the groundwork required to realize such an initiative But then a letter arrived from the Aid and Grants Administration of the Egmont Foundation along with a DKK 900,000 donation. By Jan Sturm / Corporate Communications / sturm@egmont.com
Located on a hilltop near Karup river valley, Hilltop is the name of the hotel housed by the building for nearly 40 years. The hotel was put up for sale, which solved two problems: finding a suitable place for the planned youth program and finding a name for the school.
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It is lunchtime in the town of Skive in northern Jutland. A flock of boisterous teenagers are eating in the local grill bar. Their cell phones beep incessantly with text messages and the sound of their banter comes in blasts. About 500 meters away another group of teenagers is eating. The menu is salmon lasagna with salad. But the text beeps are eerily absent and the conversation is more subdued. These teenagers are eating in the dining room at Hilltop, an education program for young autists. And they dislike unstructured noise. Although many of the students are only 16, they have experienced more failure in their young lives at kindergarten and school than most people. Hilltop is a ray of sunshine in their lives. They meet other young people with the same problems and get a chance to acquire academic skills without the denigrating eyes of others on them.
A good initiative For some years the association Autism Denmark had dreamed about creating a place that could give
young autists a stepping stone to adult life. The idea was conceived in cooperation with an existing primary school for autistic children. “I could see there was a need. And I got stubborn. We would have done this even if it meant starting out with a tent and three students. Because for many of these young people the alternative is an occupational therapy program where they carry out various routine tasks. And baking
insufficient time and inability to provide the right conditions for all the well-intentioned initiatives are usually enough to kill the good ideas. So it was with Hilltop. “We knew we’d have to put in a lot of work to realize our idea. Starting a new school in Denmark is not easy, and particularly an independent institution for children with special needs. Unfortunately there weren’t really any foundations that wanted to sup-
“And baking biscuits in a bakery is terribly demotivating for a 17-year-old keen about quantum mechanics.” biscuits in a bakery is terribly demotivating for a 17-year-old keen about quantum mechanics,” says Jeppe Østergaard Hansen, principal of the Hilltop center. Two years ago he joined the project as daily project manager. He holds a degree in philosophy but, after working with autistic children for several years, he could help realize the dream of creating an education program for young autistic people with normal intelligence.
Support from the Egmont Foundation As usually happens when local people are passionately committed to a cause, good projects never make it past the drawing board. Lack of funds,
port us during the early stages, so the idea came to nothing,” Jeppe Østergaard Hansen explains. Many Danish foundations would rather support established projects that already have a certain guarantee of success. This makes it extra difficult to build something completely from scratch. “But the letter from the Egmont Foundation meant that I and the rest of the initiative group could devote all our time to getting the million-kroner project together. Our total budget was almost DKK 24 million, and the donation from the Egmont Foundation gave me seven months to raise the money, get all the necessary public approvals and then hire teachers – plus find lots of suitable students,” recalls Jeppe Østergaard Hansen.
From drawing board to reality Facts Today Hilltop is run by a private foundation and has 31 resident students. During the three-year program, young people aged 16-25 learn how to cope with adult life. Egmont has donated DKK 900,000 to the project.
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Egmont’s charitable work Working to ensure good conditions for children and young people was a cause dear to the heart of Egmont’s founder Egmont H. Petersen. His will stipulated that his company should support charitable causes after his death. Thus, the Egmont Foundation was established as a business foundation operating a media business whose profits are reinvested in media activities and donated to charitable purposes. In practice, the donations are granted via the Aid and Grants Administration. For the past three years, the Aid and Grants Administration has successfully held networking events for ongoing projects where participants can exchange experiences and learn from each other’s projects. This year Hilltop was one of the projects on the agenda.
As Skive already has a local primary school for autistic children and the local authority is aware of the problem, the town was an obvious location for the school. On 1 August 2007, the first nine students moved into the new school. “In theory, we had a plan on the drawing board but nothing at all tangible. We were anxious to see whether we could achieve our goal – whether the idea was right,” says Jeppe Østergaard Hansen. From the beginning, as the school’s principal, he has met teary-eyed parents describing how they have waited 10 years for a place like Hilltop. He has also met young people who have found a haven after constantly changing schools, being bullied and made to feel like failures throughout their young lives. Read more at: www.ungdomsuddannelsen.dk
Hilltop The students at Hilltop have been diagnosed with either Asperger’s syndrome or autism. They often have high innate intelligence but lack emotional and social skills. They have difficulty forging relationships and are usually unable to empathise or interact constructively with other children. These conditions cause heartache, anxiety and loneliness throughout their school lives, as well as numerous defeats.
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The creators of the new company Blekkulf AS were present at a big launch party in Bergen in September. Pictured from left to right are: Rune H. Trondsen (Nordisk Film), Berit Steen (daily manager leder, Blekkulf AS), Kees O. Ekeli (the Bergen Aquarium), Blekkulf and the universe originator, Bente Roestad and Anita Tveten from Egmont Serieforlaget.
Interdisciplinary cooperation brings rusty octopus to life For 20 years the Norwegian cartoon universe Blekkulf has entertained five-to-eight-year-olds with quirky stories about life in the seas off the Norwegian coast. The universe has led a sheltered existence in a book series, a short animation and a book club. Serieforlaget and Nordisk Film have now joined forces to establish a company to attract a larger audience for Blekkulf. By Jan Sturm / Corporate Communications / sturm@egmont.com / Photos: Jens Andreas Huseby
Until recently Berit Steen worked for Nordisk Film’s Norwegian TV production department. Then she went to an anniversary party at her old grade school. “I got talking to Blekkulf’s creator, Bente Roestad. Twenty-five years ago we were classmates. Since then, she has created Blekkulf, and I’ve started producing television. During the party we talked about what fun it would be to do something more with the universe,” Berit Steen explains. She talked Serieforlaget into the idea, and together with the Bergen Akvarium the two companies have established Blekkulf AS to kick-start the development of the universe. “Although this universe is about combating pollution, it is above all a good story with characters who simply want to have fun,” says Berit Steen. She is now the daily manager of the newly established company, which plans to launch a
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comic, games, books, a TV series and a feature film in the course of the next two years. Alongside the products, a children’s theatre show will be staged at the aquarium in Bergen, which will also house an independent Blekkulf center. The center will give kids the chance to learn about animation, do tasks and learn about the problems of pollution. “We don’t write doomsday stories – but want to tell children how they can get involved,” Berit explains. However, she believes the universe can have an immense indirect impact: “We want to do something for the environment, and by using an existing character we also communicate basic environmental values that influence the adults who buy the magazines and pass on ecological awareness.” Read more about Blekkulf, or Inky as the octopus is known in English, and friends at: www.blekkulf.no
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Stafetten er en artikelserie, hvor medarbejdere fra alle dele af Egmont besvarer et fagligt spørgsmål fra en kollega. I dette nummer svarer Lykke Neiiendam, på spørgsmålet fra oktober måned: “Hvordan laver man en pitch der vinder både Go’ morgen og Go’ aften Danmark?”
Double whammy
How did you design the pitch that won both Good Morning and Good Evening Denmark? I think the key to our success was our absolute determination to win the order. We wanted to defend and repeat our success with Good Evening and we were fired up about the new Good Morning Denmark challenge. The first step was to figure out what we were prepared to invest to win an order of this size. Next we put together a group of the best capacities from all of Nordisk Film’s departments and hired a number of professional outside consultants to help with both form and content. Hundreds of conceptual ideas, meetings, mails and opinions converged to create an outline of visions and specific content suggestions as well as ideas for mood, set design and program hosts. All presented in a glossy graphic design to TV2 at a large “Good Morning set-up pitch” with a chef, actors and hosts. A single article is not long enough to do justice to three hours’ live television on Denmark’s most viewed TV channel with more than 200 broadcast days a year. However, come 1 January
Why did Nordisk Film win? Below is TV2’s own evaluation of why Nordisk ran away with the order: On balance Nordisk Film TV’s proposal was the best all-round proposal on several counts: n Competitive price although not the cheapest n The ideas for a brand concept on all platforms were the most original and coherent n The overall quality of the program ideas for both Good Morning and Good Evening was the best n Nordisk Film had the best solution to the challenge of combining innovation with internal change n Nordisk Film struck the best balance between coolness and popular appeal n Nordisk Film had the team in which we had most confidence – the editorial and the studio team behind Good Evening Denmark n Nordisk Film had the highest ambitions
What is Good Morning Denmark? 2009 everyone is welcome to visit Nordisk Film’s TV department to see the concept in all its glory – or turn on the TV at 6.30 AM and 6.30 PM! It was a tremendous process, frustrating at times but above all incredibly constructive and instructive.
About 40 people produce three hours of live television daily 200 days a year. Good Evening Denmark is Denmark’s most viewed daily talk show, seen by around 450,000 viewers
Less work for DHL Egmont Serieforlaget has introduced a new and innovative electronic alternative in its Kids department that streamlines procedures and, not least, saves time. By Birgitte Haj / Corporate Communications / haj@egmont.com
Where’s the CD? In the old days – just a year ago! – a finished book was burned on a CD and filed in the basement. Whenever one of the company’s many business partners contacted the production department, the filing clerk had to go down to the basement, find the CD, copy it and send it by DHL. In time, the idea is that partners like Coop and Disney as well as the company’s own subsidiaries will be able to log on to the new software system and, searching by characters, formats and number of pages, quickly start the process of ordering a new title. Egmont Kids has a group of 10 to 15 permanently affiliated freelancers who act as an external graphics office. Now having an electronic system that everyone can access is thus an important step. Help will always be close at hand even if the editor has left for a
new job, the filing clerk is on vacation or the user has forgotten the exact title of the book. It is easier to add data to the individual titles. They are easy to search for, and users can quickly locate new productions based on old data. Perhaps a new Christmas book featuring Winnie-the-Pooh is being planned. “Cumulus contains all the information, so a search for ‘Christmas’ and ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ will turn up all the options, and an order can quickly be dispatched to the printers,” explains Esben Stage, production manager at Egmont Kids.
“We save both time and money and our work is easier now that we don’t have to delve into the basement to search the archives,” Esben Stage explains.
Side-benefits “It’s far simpler for us and our publishers to find any given material or to produce a new title based on previously published material. It’s highly satisfying to be able to give our ‘customers’ better conditions while easing our working day by eliminating outmoded routines,” Esben concludes.
Egmont Kids develops character-based books for children – Winnie-the-Pooh, Bob the Builder, Postman Pat, High School Musical, Camp Rock and many, many more.
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Easy Readers turns 65 The first books in the Easy Readers series were printed in 1943 in protest against the prohibition of English-language literature by the German occupying forces. Today the series enjoys international success, with titles read by children and adults in 19 countries. This year Easy Readers celebrates its 65th anniversary – with no fear of impending retirement. By Louise Tuborgh / Reflekt
Classics like The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Scarlet Pimpernel were some of the first titles published in the Easy Readers series. Today there are over 300 titles published in languages such as German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.
During the Second World War, windows and street lighting were not the only victims of the Germanimposed blackout. The Germans also prohibited all English-language literature. The Danes had a voracious appetite for English books, however, which spurred Birger Schmith, managing director of Grafisk Forlag, and English teacher Aage Salling to devise an ingenious way around the problem. They launched the Easy Readers series of Englishlanguage books stamped with the words ‘For educational use’ – and sold them to private individuals as well as schools. Today, 65 years on, Alinea publishes the Easy Readers series, which includes 300 titles in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian read in 19 countries the world over.
“The Easy Readers series was based on the idea of abridging literary classics in the hope that students and others who read great authors at an early stage would be inspired to read the original editions later in life. This remains our aim, and there is great demand for this type of book,” explains Ulla Malmmose, editor-in-chief of Easy Readers. She has worked with Easy Readers for 32 years and believes the series’ success is due partly to the respect with which the original works are treated. “Because we rarely choose books longer than 200 pages, we can avoid chopping them up completely,” she points out.
German appeal Although the Easy Readers’ portfolio includes many old classics, the book series format, layout and fonts
are regularly updated, and new contemporary titles are added every year. “Every year we publish at least 12 new titles, and in 1992 we developed the Teen Readers series for the 10–17-year-olds. Teen Readers are books specially written for the target group. Some are also available as audiobooks, so the book series does not require the same language skill level as Easy Readers,” Ulla Malmmose points out. She gets ideas for new titles from such sources as the Frankfurt and Bologna book fairs and through Alinea’s external editors and collaboration partners. “Our German collaboration partner is particularly forthcoming with input, and Germany is our largest export market,” says the editor-in-chief with a wry smile: “That’s a little ironic when you think about why the series came into being in the first place!”