Last week, 37,000 copies of Sara Magazin were distributed via kiosks at stations and airports in Germany. Sara Magazin is the ‘sister’ of the popular Dutch Magazine Saar, published by Snippet Media.
Barbara van Erp is owner and publisher of Saar and Sara and talks about the creation of the German edition in the Bladendokter podcast. Listen to the conversation below.
With thanks to Brigitte’s editors
The idea for a German edition of Saar started in 2020 with a visit from the editors of the German magazine Brigitte. “A few years ago, Brigitte’s editors came over. That’s the German ‘Libelle’, so to speak. They regularly went to the Netherlands to gain inspiration and many editors brought a Saar with them as an example.”
Brigitte’s editors wanted to make a dummy to see if a similar title would work in Germany. Van Erp: “So I thought: katsjing, cash register, nice, let’s do it!” The editors had made a selection of stories for the dummy. “The choice fell on all the safe ones, ‘middle of the road‘ stories. Nothing naughty or exuberant. Not at all like Saar is,” says Van Erp.
Brigitte’s editors were of the opinion that stories for the German Saar should be better suited to the German reader, who is a lot neater and less outspoken than the Dutch woman. “Long story short, they had made that dummy, which I couldn’t agree with at all. Moreover, it turned out that they actually had no intention of buying a license at all. They came to ‘get inspiration’… they just came to steal,” says Van Erp.
New round, new opportunities
The idea for a German version stuck with Van Erp. “Six months ago I thought: Saar is doing so well (I get bored quite easily) and I was looking forward to a new challenge.” She immersed herself in the German publishing market. “I sat down on the couch with a whole pile of German magazines and started looking. Who is writing interesting stories? Who are those heads with similar titles? Who are the talented freelancers? I was looking for people who had experience at the magazines, but preferably who were also a bit of an outsider, like people who have a lot of newspaper experience. So that you are not completely shaped by, for example, a Brigitte.” One name kept popping up, says Van Erp. “That was Nadja Bossmann.” The two met, they clicked immediately and Bossmann is now the new editor-in-chief of Sara Magazin.
Are German women so different?
There is also a lot of discussion with Bossmann about the tone and subject choices for Sara Magazin. Van Erp notices that there are many doubts as to whether the sometimes coarse, exuberant tone of the Dutch Saar suits the German target group. “But we can easily test that. Then we put a post about the subject on Instagram. And if 3,000 women respond to it, then we know it is good.”
Van Erp says that many stories from the Dutch Saar are translated (by AI) and that only a small part of the content is created specifically for the German edition. As an example, she mentions the columns and interviews with famous Germans and lifestyle content with German ‘typical Sara women’. Both the German and Dutch editions of the magazine are printed in Estonia and then transported to Germany and the Netherlands respectively for distribution to subscribers and single-copy sales.
Already 2,000 subscribers for the first issue
It has now Sara Magazine already recruited 2,000 subscribers. Van Erp assumes that there is still considerable growth, because there are of course many more German readers aged 50+ than in the Netherlands. From the next issue, Sara Magazin will also be available in Austria and Switzerland.
In response to the question of whether German readers are so different from Dutch readers, van Erp says: “I haven’t really discovered it yet. They are perhaps a little more closed and a bit neater. But every time I think about those differences, I find myself sitting across from a German woman who is very nice and open. And who likes the things that we also like. So I think the differences do exist somewhere, but all those clichés are perhaps negligible.”
LINDA., HAppinez and Flow in Germany
Van Erp gives examples of other magazines that have once tried cross-border. In addition to successes such as Happinez and Flow, there are also failures. “They also tried it with LINDA. People then start talking about a different tone that had to be taken and the LINDA feeling that did not come across well. And about cultural differences. Such stories have prevented me from pursuing this plan for a long time.” Yet Van Erp has stood his ground. “If it is a hit in the Netherlands, it can also be a hit in Germany,” she concludes.
