Strong-willed in the market

tefanie Meierfrankenfeld recently took over responsibility for the Swiss Sales Office at Gruner + Jahr. Her responsibilities include international business, i.e. advertising customers for Gruner + Jahr's entire portfolio of titles. On the other hand, the Swiss splits. These include Gala magazine, which has just been added to MACH. "We already have 182,000 readers, which is a good result," Meierfrankenfeld states happily. "We are very satisfied with that." Gala has now been present in Switzerland for 5 years, with Switzerland-specific topics from its own editorial team.

"The publishing business is very important to us," emphasizes Meierfrankenfeld. After all, the focus is not only on the advertising business, but also on a high-quality publishing site. For example, a new editorial team has just been set up for GEO in Switzerland. Marco Vala is responsible for the entire operational publishing business in Switzerland and therefore also for Schöner Wohnen and Brigitte Switzerland.

"Portfolio and customer base are growing steadily"

Gruner + Jahr's largest portfolio of titles is based in Germany, the second largest in France. In Italy, where Stefanie Meierfrankenfeld has been for the last six years, the publishing house does not have its own reader base - the publishing business was sold - but it does have many advertising customers. In 2009, when Meierfrankenfeld moved to Milan to set up a sales office for Gruner + Jahr, the publishing house was still represented by third parties. As Italy is one of the most important foreign markets in terms of advertising business, it was decided that it would be better to develop the market in a local office, says Meierfrankenfeld. She then set up her own sales office in Milan with three employees. There are now nine employees. "It's going very well," she says happily.

The sales office in Milan, like the one in Switzerland, is responsible for all of the publisher's foreign media and those of some leading external publishing partners, i.e. for the portfolio of titles in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark and China. Inflight magazines are also a major topic. Gruner + Jahr works with Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and KLM as a publisher and for advertising sales, as well as a sales office for British Airways and several others. "The portfolio and customer base in Italy have grown steadily and so has the team," explains Meierfrankenfeld.

With Gala to Zurich - and back

After successfully setting up the international sales office in Milan, Stefanie Meierfrankenfeld has now moved to Zurich to work on the advertising market. "I've settled in very well in Zurich," says Meierfrankenfeld. Unlike before in the traffic-heavy center of Milan, she has already been invited to Halloween pumpkin soup dinners by her neighbors while the children make the neighborhood unsafe in their costumes. "There's much more going on outside here and the children play in the street," she says happily. It really is a bit like her childhood.

As Meierfrankenfeld is still responsible for international business in Italy, she commutes to Milan more often. She also wants to visit publishers in France and other countries. But she won't be spending as much time on the train to Milan as she is at the moment. "I think I will commute to Milan about every 14 days," she explains her plans. After all, she already knows the customers in Milan and her local Sales Director manages the team very well.

At the moment, she wants to spend most of her time getting to know customers in Switzerland. "Because Switzerland is also big," she explains, referring to the Swiss advertising market. In addition to German-speaking Switzerland, Gruner + Jahr also has many customers in French-speaking Switzerland for its international business - mainly watch customers. Although Meierfrankenfeld does not speak French, she does speak English and Italian. "Some people have a certain talent for languages - it takes me a little longer to be able to speak freely," she explains. "I have to get through a language logically somehow, it doesn't come naturally to me," she laughs.

In addition to watch and luxury customers, international customers in Switzerland also include the financial market, tourism, design, fashion - "and cheese", she explains. "One big difference to Milan is that here in Switzerland I deal with German-speaking customers who also know our products really well," says Meierfrankenfeld. This allows us to go into a little more detail with our partners. However, as far as title selection and placement are concerned, there is not much difference to the work she did in Milan, says Meierfrankenfeld. "In general, I have the feeling that both in Italy and here, in addition to all the figures and performance values, which of course have to be right, personal discussions are always considered very important in order to find creative approaches and get to know the people behind the titles."

The bubble bath moment

Stefanie Meierfrankenfeld was able to choose her entire workforce herself in Milan, gradually built up the team and has not yet lost any of these employees. "We all started with a start-up feeling, but always had the large parent company behind us," she says, describing the good starting position. This provided security, but also the necessary flexibility. This was always very motivating for the employees in particular. "We knew that the business plan had to be right and that we also had to look at costs and revenue. But we also have something new every year," explains Meierfrankenfeld. New countries and new titles are added every year. "All of this together is probably part of the success there," she summarizes.

As far as the international markets are concerned, everything fits into the picture, she says. "It works very well," she states, "especially in the international luxury goods sector, people continue to rely on high-quality print. There has already been a major shift in the national sector or other industries." The publishing house is therefore also taking part in the digital changes. "Gruner + Jahr offers high-quality journalistic content across all channels - and this certainly includes digital and mobile with an increasing share - and tailor-made solutions on how customers can be integrated there," she explains. "But luxury is still beautifully attached to print. People want opulence, especially in the watch and luxury segment, and only a certain environment."

In this way, Gruner + Jahr is very stable in the market - especially with the further developed flagships such as Stern, Capital, Häuser and Geo. Gala, for example, is not only stable on the international market, but is even recording rising circulation and readership in Switzerland. Exciting reports from the world of Swiss celebrities, news from fashion, beauty, gourmet and wellness. "Our readers in Switzerland really appreciate this mix of topics, it's like the bubble bath moment of the week," says Meierfrankenfeld. At the same time, the publisher is focusing on successful new launches. In Germany, for example, Grazia was launched five years ago and magazines such as Barbara only recently. "We also have the courage to launch new premium niche products," says Meierfrankenfeld, "such as Salon. This is very tactile, elegant and opulent." She compares the magazine to a "Vogue for food and hospitality", which is intended to appeal to a very high-end target group. "It's great fun to bring these magazines to the market."

Loyal to the publisher

Stefanie Meierfrankenfeld grew up in Westphalia. As a child, she was more focused on animals and agriculture. "I even briefly considered becoming a vet at one point," she says. During her A-levels, however, her interest in German and philosophy took her in a different direction. "But I couldn't write myself," she is convinced. "There are people who are brilliant at something. That was never me," she adds. What's more, she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do at first. And business studies offered a relatively wide scope for decisions for a later career choice. After graduating, Meierfrankenfeld started in sales in the publishing industry. "My job now offers a good combination of my interests," she explains.

Meierfrankenfeld started out in the warehouse at Bertelsmann, which wholly owns Gruner + Jahr. Its headquarters are in Gütersloh, where she grew up. After an internship in NY and Hamburg and a traineeship at Gruner + Jahr, she worked as Portfolio Manager Digital before moving to AOL as Business & Sales Strategy Manager. Two and a half years later, she returned to Gruner + Jahr as International Sales Manager and has been with the publishing house for around eleven years since then. Her many years of experience have not only given her a good network. Proximity to the editorial teams and customers is also important to her.

What drives her is briefly described. Apart from the fact that she has a good level of self-confidence - which has also grown through the independent establishment of a sales office in Milan - Meierfrankenfeld describes her motivation very easily: "I have a clear idea of what is possible - and the will to simply do what is necessary well." In Milan, for example, she struggled a lot at the beginning, but in the end it was precisely this determination that led to success. "I'm probably quite strong-willed and also a bit impatient," she adds. "It just makes me happy when it works, for our advertising partners and therefore also for us."

Ursina mason