Joachim Berner about his mediekarriär: It was a painful journey for me

the 90's was a glorious time for Joachim Berner. Managerial positions in Private Business and Göteborgs-Posten was followed, in 1996, 34 years old, of redaktionschefsposten on Today's News, then editor-in-chief and ceo. It was hard to find anyone hotter in the world of media.

But when he took the job as Expressen's editor-in-chief in 2001 and turned it. His new got edition to drop instead of increase, a headline about Gudrun Schymans ”sex tape” was convicted in Supreme court for defamation. And inappropriate, flirty e-mails to a co-worker later, so was the track as a newspaperman. He stopped at Expressen after half a year, ”properly scruffy”.

If all this, and much more, you can read in the memories, ”The prodigal son”, which is released in few days. A title with double meaning.

the offer to become ceo of Swedish Radio. It is to say no to. Just it would, however, SR itself, after anställningskontraktets signature – Berner did not even take office. Now burst the wires to the previously upward lift. He was chased for comments to the svårtydda ”scandal”. He was hiding, did not answer the phone, hardly went out. And in a crisis. From the top to the bottom it had taken two years.

he Had his own part in it there, pushed too hard, ran too fast?

"I had become seduced by the attention," he says. I was everywhere, it was not many mornings that I'm not on the road to DN went past the radio or tv to speak about something.

– The promotion of my vanity. I was seen as a phenomenon, and I shall not boast myself here, but my light – mother, journalist, father director and I myself was once a young rockrecensent – made that I could touch myself in both the culture and economic sectors. Sit in the boardroom and go to concerts. It was well interesting. But mediedramaturgin works so that first you have to up and then picked down. It was a painful journey for me.

We meet in a meeting room on the Stureplan in Stockholm, at a venture capital firm, where Joachim Berner is one of many at this board. Among these, the family company Christian Berner he is the chairman of the board. Only direct contact with the media is via a board of directors, lokaltidningsbolaget in the Middle.

much of in ”The prodigal son”. Among other things, the complex relationship to the father, and the conviction that the son would take over the company. Förälskelserna. The bernese as a keyboardist in a sextiotalister halvkänt band. To be seen as överklassunge out and irresponsible at home.

So, to become editor-in-chief and ceo was his way to try and satisfy both parents. But at the same time, he is ”a naughty person”. Memoirs in the day almost always protests: ”So where it was not at all”, and can be interpreted as a right mess. For example, with people who felt sidsteppade or stepped on in what was called the ”most protest-rich house”, Today's News.

– To create dramas is true certainly for me. But so critical is, I didn't, here there are no revelations or so. Some may consider that I am out cycling, but I have had the ambition to be absolutely true. Anything else would be pointless.

do not have the tranquility in themselves, and that he has a hard time to find the real harmony in a relationship. But also how we ”breaks down, when no one needs us.” Duality, on the one hand, have a strong need for closeness and affirmation, on the other hand, to be tough and independent, you feel enough many again. But the crisis that Berner went through became existential concerns. Shots and they were the ”best thing that could have happened,” he writes.

" if you Are in a middle of a job for a strong brand that DN can you not think of such a thing. Finally, it is believed that it is the brand. And then, take the end of the year.

" I failed at Expressen, so be it. But Swedish Radio tvärvände without something new if the me had arrived, it was completely bizarre. All that the past had been positive was now negative, I was incredibly chased. And simply took the end of the year.

and retrieves a nikotintablett. Not rarely, it was in a smoking room which you could hold a discussion, sometimes heated, with him. Now limits, he will move to tablets, and perhaps it is somehow typical of his development. To put down their tougher side and find a form of spirituality.

the Church has been important to me. I dare to stand for it, I dare say it here. I protected me, you associate things like that with saved people and how they see themselves as so very good. But only because I have found a spirituality, as I imagine not that I am a bit tastier than you. It is an important distinction for me.

" A peace of mind. I can feel it in this conversation also, that in some ways the book provides me a peace of mind. You say all the time that I am tough, tough, but I think of myself as a pretty sensitive person. I'm more aware of my shortcomings in the day, and can accept that they are a part of my person. A more harmonious person in the day.

" Absolutely not revenge. But the desire on the newspaper again, there was the constant discussion, the creativity, the adrenaline. Any dinner can I still try to make a redaktionsmöte. In our times of drifted with the social media influence I had, with the experience and stability in today, been a better publisher. It I am sure.

" But I have got very nice mission boards, the family business has been going well, I have it quite fun now. To release it, and with full focus ... no, I think I too old for an operational role. And what would the reaction be: ”But wait, had we not killed the where the Bernese?”

" I have long wanted to write about what happened. But not in the heat of the moment, when you feel like a victim and it is in danger of pajkastning. And if ten years are not many left in the industry, it would be anecdotally.

– But what really got me to not wait was that my friend and tennispartner Christer died suddenly when he was out and ran. The next time it is I who is out running.