What we can learn from Europe’s best selling magazine about communicating with intention

Read more thoughts on the art of communicating week-daily at https://michaelgerharz.com/blog

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How do you scale a magazine from zero readers to being

Europe's best selling magazine?

You need three things.

Great writing.

That resonates.

And gets passed along.

Interestingly, this list starts at the end.

It's how Henri Nannen, founder of the Stern magazine and it's editor in chief

for more than 30 years, led the magazine to actually become Europe's best selling

magazine in the seventies and eighties.

He demanded from his editors to start their writing at what gets passed along.

Unless an editor could clearly state what a reader was supposed to tell a

friend after reading an article, they were not allowed to write the article.

Nannen explained the rule by an anecdote about his grandparents.

It goes like this:

Suppose grandpa and grandma are going for a walk.

Along their way, they buy the newest edition of our magazine.

Now, when they come home, they do what they always do.

Grandma walks into the kitchen to prepare lunch, while grandpa sits down

in the living room to read our magazine.

Suddenly after reading one of the articles, he closes the magazine

to shout into the kitchen.

Grandma, they're going to raise taxes again.

It's the one sentence that felt so important to him that it created the

urge to shout it into the kitchen.

It's the same phrase that he's going to tell his friends when

he meets them in the evening.

When we don't decide what that phrase will be, grandpa's just

going to decide for himself.

Now, what's important to keep in mind here is that it's the same

sentence that your audience is going to tell their friends – whether it be

colleagues, bosses, partners, spouses – when they tell them about the piece

they just heard or read from you.

It's the same sentence your audience will reply with when someone asks them.

So what was the pitch like?

The thing is this.

Your audience will always have that pass along phrase.

No matter whether you like it or not, your audience will always

choose a pass along phrase.

No matter whether you like it or not, your audience will always have

an answer when someone asks them: So what was it about and they're

not going to ask you for support.

Are you clear about the pass along phrase of your audience?