Bonnier unveils new marketing and publicity structure as promotions announced 

Emilie Marneur, director of audience and business development at Bonnier Books UK, has announced a new structure for the publisher’s marketing and publicity departments to set Bonnier up for future growth and support its "rapidly expanding" trade divisions.

A spokesperson told The Bookseller the company had previously never had publicity and marketing directors working across the trade before. The promotion of Francesca Russell and Rob Power to the new senior management positions of trade publicity director and trade marketing director respectively will now span children’s and adult publishing.

Since joining Bonnier Books UK in late 2020, Marneur has been responsible for driving the company’s digital growth and transformation with an increased emphasis on direct-to-consumer and consumer-centric initiatives.

She said of the move: “As a business, we’re constantly looking to take the next steps forward to publish and promote our books in the best possible ways, meet the needs of our customers, and play to the strengths of the immense talent within our ranks. I am confident that these promotions, and the skills of the leaders we now have in these roles, will power us through the next phase of growth as we continue to challenge ourselves and innovate on behalf of our authors, readers and listeners.” All changes will become effective on 1st July 2023.

After five years at Bonnier Books UK, Russell will step into the role of trade publicity director, working across the children’s division, Zaffre Publishing Group, and the newly created Black & White Publishing Group. She first joined as publicity director for fiction and her role has expanded across both adult trade divisions and now the children’s division too.

Marneur said: “Francesca is a seasoned and excellent publicist and has been instrumental in the success of many of our fiction and non-fiction bestsellers over the years. She’s a fantastic leader and I continue to be amazed by her team’s output, creativity and the quality of coverage they are able to secure for our books and authors.”

Power is promoted to trade marketing director, with the adult and children’s marketing teams reporting to him. Power joined Bonnier Books UK as head of children’s marketing in late 2021. Under his leadership the children’s marketing and publicity team delivered its best ever year last year with a record number of bestsellers including Where’s Spidey, which was the 31st bestselling book of 2022, with of more than 170,000 copies sold through the Total Consumer Market across the year. Of his promotion Marneur said: “In less than two years, Rob has brought incredible new talent into the business, put digital marketing and innovation at the forefront of our activities, developed his team and transformed how the children’s marketing team operates. We can’t wait to see him apply that innovative thinking across all adult trade marketing as well.”

Reporting to Power, Emma Quick is promoted to head of marketing, children’s trade. In the last three years, she has risen from senior marketing executive to head marketing for Bonnier Books UK’s children’s fiction list, Hot Key Books. She also launched Hot Key’s TikTok channel in 2020. Power said: “Emma is a real talent — a first-class marketer, an innovative thinker and a passionate advocate for children’s publishing in all its multifaceted variety. She’s grown into an exceptional leader and mentor, and we’re all excited to see what she has in store for our best-in-class children’s marketing team."

Two further changes are being made within the audio division. Jon Watt is promoted to trade audio and business development director. Watt – also the current chair of the Publishers Association audio group - has been leading the audio team at Bonnier Books UK since 2018.

Under his leadership, the company has seen its audio revenue increase over 30% year-on-year over the last few years. In this new role, Watt will expand his business development responsibilities beyond audio and will support Marneur in identifying new retail and publishing partners with a view to maximising revenues. Marneur said: “Jon’s agility, commercial acumen and strategic thinking have helped us forge strong business partnerships, which have in turn enabled us to grow our audio sales and revenue year on year. It’s that entrepreneurial mindset that makes him a natural fit for this expanded business development role and I look forward to working closely with him in this capacity.”

Reporting into Watt, Laura Makela will step up to the role of head of audio, to oversee audio across both the Zaffre Publishing Group and children’s trade. Makela also joined the company in 2018, as audio operations manager. Watt said: “Laura’s exceptional understanding of and insights into production, operations and the market have been instrumental in developing the audio division at Bonnier Books UK.”