Stockholm, Sweden, August 2026 — Storytel Group has appointed Åsa Barsness as Chief People and Communications Officer, a newly established role bringing the Group’s communications and HR/People functions together under unified leadership. She will join the Executive Management Team, report to CEO Bodil Eriksson Torp, and take up the role on November 1, 2026.
Barsness joins Storytel from SVT, Sweden’s public service television broadcaster, where she serves as Director of Communications and HR. In that role, she has combined responsibility for communications and people leadership, bringing together strategic communications, HR and organisational priorities.
Before SVT, Barsness spent three years with TV4 as VP, Communication, Marketing and HR at TV4 Media. Prior to that, she served as Chief Communications Officer & Chief HR Officer at Bonnier Broadcasting, further strengthening her experience in integrated communications and people leadership within the media sector.
Earlier in her career, Barsness served as Director of Communications at Sweco and as Associate Director at JKL. She also spent more than a decade with IBM, progressing through several senior Nordic and country communications roles, including Director of Marketing & Communications, IBM Nordic, Nordic Communications Manager, and Country Communications Manager, IBM Sweden. Her earlier experience includes serving as Marketing Communications Manager at Motorola in Chicago.
Across her career, Barsness has developed extensive international experience spanning communications, marketing, HR, leadership, organisational development and change. At Storytel Group, she will lead the newly combined People and Communications function as the company continues to evolve its organisation and strengthen its global storytelling business.
About Storytel Group
Storytel Group is a storytelling company guided by the purpose, “Leading the future of storytelling, we move the world through stories.” The Group operates across two business areas: Streaming and Publishing, bringing stories to audiences through multiple formats.
Its streaming service offers more than 1.8 million titles in over 55 languages to more than 2.7 million subscribers, operating under brands including Storytel, Mofibo and Audiobooks.com. Its publishing operations include renowned houses such as Bokfabriken, Gummerus, Lind & Co, Norstedts Publishing Group, People’s, Storyside and Overamstel. Storytel Group is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
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