History in brief…
Tomorrow Media was started in 1990 by owner Claes Sjöberg, and until 2000 operated principally as a holding company in publishing.
Over the years, Sjöberg built up a small research unit concentrating on news distribution and
analysis of companies and their operations from an environmental, socially
responsible and sustainable viewpoint. Tomorrow Media’s product portfolio consisted of a newsletter (MiljöRapporten) for the Swedish market, emailed reports, seminars and an
internationally focused magazine, Tomorrow. The titles were sold to new owners
in 1998 and 2000.
From 2001, Tomorrow Media began accepting consultancy assignments from Swedish
and international companies wanting to improve their business development or
communications in environmental and sustainability issues. In 2004, parts of
the company were sold to the Gullers Grupp PR agency. In 2007, Claes Sjöberg reconsolidated his operations within Tomorrow Media AB. The company is
concerned principally with consultancy, analysis and training. Part of the
operation runs through a subsidiary, Tomorrow Expedition AB.
… and the longer version.
For six years in the 1980s, Claes Sjöberg was a reporter specialising in environmental and scientific issues for
Dagens Eko, the major news department of the Swedish Radio Company. He left the
company in 1988 to teach at what is now the Department of Journalism, Media and
Communication at Stockholm University and write books. He published Miljöjournalistik (Environmental Journalism) in 1989. With Bo Thunberg he also wrote
Miljöboken, en lärobok för gymnasieskolan (The Environment Book, a teaching aid for high schools).
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In 1989, Claes Sjöberg launched MiljöRapporten, a newsletter focusing on the growing environmental commitment by
business. Within a few years, the newsletter became the leading information
source for a growing number of environmental managers in Swedish and
Scandinavian companies. The newsletter was the market leader and the staff was
able to build up peripheral activities for its readership among professionals.
Activities included seminars and a daily emailed news service.
Often first with the news in its field
The strategy was to deliver, independently and impartially, a swift, unbiased
journalistic take on news and events. Over the years, many distinguished
Swedish environmental journalists were on staff or connected to the operation — Susanna Baltscheffsky, Tomas Carlberg, Magnus Kristenson and Gunhild Arby — but the strongest influence on MiljöRapporten was Eva Bingel, chiefly responsible for news coverage.
Tomorrow Magazine
In 1991, in partnership with advertising executive Thorleif Håwi, Claes Sjöberg founded Tomorrow Magazine, an international magazine about business and
global environment issues. Like the newsletter, the magazine was a success and
after a few years had considerable distribution among subscribers and business
customers in Europe and North America. Thorleif Håwi left after a year but was succeeded by new colleagues and part-owners in
Tomorrow Publishing, a subsidiary of Tomorrow Media.
International prestige
The magazine’s editor, Kim Loughran, marketing manager Astrid von Schmeling and designers
Anders and Micael Wiking, together with Claes Sjöberg and other colleagues, built up a magazine of international high renown. The
editorial office was in Stockholm but almost all writers — and several advertising sales personnel — were based abroad. Tomorrow Magazine proved that writing about environmental
issues (and later also sustainability) did not have to be dry — on the contrary, they needed to presented as an exciting part of companies’ business development and communication with the public.
Meeting of Tomorrow Magazine Editorial Advisory Board. The Board provided input
from respected scientific and environmental institutes and NGO`s , such as the
Worldwatch Institute, USA, the Panos Institute, UK, the Centre for Our Common
Future, Switzerland, the Keystone Center, USA, Lega per L´Ambiente, Italy, Centre for Science and Environment, India and IUCN, the World
Conservation Union.
E&T acquires MiljöRapporten
Ekonomi & Teknik Förlag, a trade-press publishing house, purchased MiljöRapporten in 1998. Claes Sjöberg was put on staff to manage the company’s newsletters, including Konsultvärlden (Consultancy World) and the annual Konsultguiden (The Consultancy Guide).
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At E & T Förlag, MiljöRapporten was re-styled from newsletter to magazine, with a more sophisticated
layout, four-colour offset printing and advertising. The annual MiljöGuiden (Environment Guide) was also launched. Early in 2000, Claes Sjöberg left E & T Förlag after more than ten years as publisher and managing editor of MiljöRapporten.
Sale of Tomorrow Magazine
In 2000, Claes Sjöberg returned to Tomorrow Magazine as CEO for Tomorrow Publishing. The magazine
was the company’s major product and by this stage had distribution in over 100 countries, mainly
in Western Europe and North America. The magazine was now focused not only on
purely environment issues but also on businesses’ social responsibility, ethics and sustainability. Continued expansion with
resources generated solely by the magazine proved too challenging and Tomorrow
Publishing was sold at the end of the year to a start-up company, Global
Responsibility, whose business idea was to assist companies communicate their
sustainability performance with the help of an Internet-based communications
platform. After the sale, the magazine was radically re-organised, bringing in
a new sales organisation and editorial staff. Claes Sjöberg remained with the company for a transfer period before handing over to the
new owners.
Tomorrow Media becomes a consultancy
In late 2001, Claes Sjöberg started a consultancy in partnership with Charlotte Sjöquist, business developer and previously management consultant. Also involved
were Eva Bingel, a former editor of MiljöRapporten, as well as a number of contracted Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) specialists. The business idea was to go after high-level assignments in
the CSR field. After working with clients of the order of IKEA, Skanska, the
Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) and SAS, in late 2004 Tomorrow
Media’s consultancy was acquired by Gullers Grupp Informationsrådgivare AB. The merger with Gullers brought with it several complex and
high-level CSR projects such as advanced advisory, production and brand
development.
In 2007 Claes Sjöberg left Gullers Grupp to work exclusively through Tomorrow Media AB and a
start-up company, Tomorrow Expedition. Assignments are mainly concentrated to
consultancy, film and video production, training, media relations, PR, and
organising and moderating conferences.
The Association of Graduate Engineers Mass Media Prize
In 1995, Claes Sjöberg became the first recipient of the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers
Prize. In the words of the citation: ”Claes Sjöberg realised at an early stage the great social significance of environmental
issues. He was one of the first environmental journalists. In recent years,
through his personal commitment to Tomorrow Media AB, he has revitalized
environmental journalism and provided new insights through interesting and
informative products such as MiljöRapporten and — especially — Tomorrow Magazine.”
King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Environment Prize
In 2000, Claes Sjöberg was awarded the King Carl XVI Gustaf Environmental Prize for work in
spreading awareness of environmental issues. The prize, presented at a ceremony
at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, was in the form of a stipend for
international studies in environmentalism.
International network
After many years at the helm of one of the world’s best-known magazines on business and sustainable development, Claes Sjöberg has a broad international contact network. For some of those years, Sjöberg was also a member of the UK’s Cambridge University Core Faculty in charge of their annual leadership program
in Business & the Environment. He has had several assignments for the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) and worked on communications projects for The World
Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI).
The Core Faculty at Cambridge University´s Business and the Environment Seminar, Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg.
