When Spotlight Verlag's Wolfgang Stock talked about 'Making things happen in a digital world' at the FIPP Congress in New York, the reflective German proceeded to both entertain and inform in equal measure. Here, Lucy Aitken talks to the man from Bonn and discovers a specialist publisher with broad horizons...

With characteristic modesty, Dr Wolfgang Stock, the publisher and managing director of language-learning publisher Spotlight Verlag, is apologetic about his English. He needn‘t worry; his spoken English, as befits a man who is an expert on how to be proficient in languages, turns out to be near-perfect.

Stock joined Spotlight Verlag in 1995, when the company was just 14 years old. Today, the Munich-based publisher employs 80 people and, as if mirroring the international tone of its titles, 16 different nationalities are represented within the company‘s workforce.

"Over the years, I have learnt so much about French culture, Spanish food and Italian music," enthuses Stock. "I really believe that it enriches us to learn about different languages and cultures." Stock is also a firm advocate of lifelong learning: "Learning is not something that should stop when you leave school or university. Smart people realise that education is an investment and they are willing to invest in themselves."

Thanks to these smart folk, Spotlight Verlag‘s 2004 turnover was €17.3 million, generated by just seven magazines. The portfolio of titles attracts an impressive total of 800,000 readers and the magazines have done nothing but grow in both popularity and profile over the last ten years. Stock is adamant that learning a language should be, above all else, fun. "Our school years weren‘t exactly a laugh a minute," he remembers. "It was hard to learn and teachers could sometimes be quite difficult, whereas we are committed to making learning a fun process."

Spotlight, the company‘s flagship title, is a general interest magazine to help people learn English through relaxed and accessible editorial. Features span a variety of topics, including lifestyle, travel, culture, politics and business.

Spotlight‘s total circulation is 124,428 and the magazine brand now adorns a series of spin-off products including two magazines - one for the business community, Business Spotlight, and Spot On for teens. In addition, there are Spotlight CDs, audio tapes, teachers‘ notes, Plus language-exercise books, retail outlets and, last but not least, e-newsletters and the internet.

"We recognise that there are different kinds of learning," explains Stock. "Some people learn best by reading; others by hearing. I imagine that some day we might publish Spotlight videos or DVDs for those who learn best with visual prompts." Future magazine brand extensions could target women or even pre-school kids. "Nowadays in Germany, kids learn English from kindergarten," he says.

As well as expanding its demographic audience, Spotlight Verlag is also casting its net far and wide from a geographic point of view. It already publishes titles to help those learning English [Spotlight], Italian [Adesso], Spanish [ECOS] and French [e[acute]coute], and plans are in the pipeline for a German learning magazine. What‘s more, Stock reveals that contracts to publish in China and Bulgaria are about to be signed.

How does he explain the enthusiastic take-up for these titles? "You cannot conduct business today without good language skills," he says. "If a Spaniard and a German meet up in France to talk business, they will speak in English. And, as the business potential of Eastern Europe is becoming ever more apparent, German will become much more important as a language. If business people aren‘t able to communicate in English, they will conduct their meetings in German."

And China will be a significant market for the company. Stock says that, although there are already 12 English learning magazines in China, few, if any, have the heritage or experience of Spotlight. As China‘s economy continues to boom and more international corporations scrutinise the business potential on the mainland, there is a real opportunity for Spotlight Verlag to lend its expertise in making business transactions run more smoothly.

Stock‘s passion for languages and what can be achieved through learning extends right to the heart of the company he manages. Spotlight Verlag runs language courses every Thursday morning for its employees and each member of staff has the option to choose one course a year. "We invest a lot in our staff," he says.

There is a similar respect for readers. When asked what his advice would be to aspiring international publishers, Stock responds: "The most important thing is to understand your audiences. If you target them successfully with subscriptions, you are halfway there." Subscribers, which comprise approximately two thirds of Spotlight Verlag titles, tend to be a loyal bunch: the average length of a subscription is four and a half years. Stock adds: "Our main subscribers are schools, universities, language schools or companies which provide language training."

Organisations which offer instruction in both language and culture, like Berlitz, make up a significant chunk of advertising revenue for Spotlight Verlag; the remainder comprises lifestyle-oriented brands, such as French wines or Italian olive oils. These premium products reflect the sophisticated tastes of the magazines‘ readership: a survey of Spotlight Verlag‘s readers shows that an average reader is a highly educated opinion leader in the latter half of their 30s, and is likely to be either self-employed or in a top management position.

In fact, the readership of these magazines bears some resemblance to the reader profile of two of Stock‘s favourite titles, Time and Newsweek. He comments: "I admire these newsmagazines because they produce a compelling mix of global editorial and local issues. But if I had to choose one magazine in the whole world, I would choose The Economist because it‘s a wonderful magazine. It is also particularly rich in information for me because I studied economics and social sciences."

Stock studied at RWTH Aachen University in West Germany as well as in Barcelona, and received his PhD from the former. He then became a press correspondent on Latin America, reporting chiefly from Mexico City. In 1988, following his return to Germany, he became a publishing director at ECON, a business book publisher, before joining the publishing group Georg v. Holtzbrinck.

In 1995, he was asked to run the newly-acquired Spotlight Verlag and his enthusiasm and smart publishing sense has made the company one of Europe‘s most-respected names in language-learning; in 2003 Spotlight Verlag received an award from the Bavarian State Government for outstanding achievement in magazine publishing.

What is striking about Stock is his willingness to embrace change. "I‘m not addicted to the old German phrase ‘we have always done it that way, so we‘ll carry on doing like that‘. We have to be flexible. Ten years ago, no one knew anything about the internet and that medium changed the world. No one knows what the next ten years will bring so as a publisher you have to remain open-minded to what‘s around the corner. When new technologies arrive on the scene, my attitude towards them is ‘let‘s see how we can use this to our advantage.‘" 

He is full of admiration of the countless small business-to-business publishers around the world which have raised their profile thanks to the internet and other new media. But it is flying which really gets Stock excited. "I‘m passionate about it," he gushes. "In aviation, there are so many good magazines, particularly in the US, which know their market inside out."

And for Stock and the ever-expanding portfolio of magazines at Spotlight Verlag, you get the impression that the sky really is the limit.

The premise is a simple one: Learning a language can be hard work. Reading a magazine is entertainment. When you read a magazine and learn a language, that's Spotlight.

Lucy Aitken is a freelance international reporter and media specialist.

Source: FIPP‘s Magazine World, issue 45, 2005