Premium Quarterly: “Beautiful And Smart At The Same Time"

Premium Quarterly was launched last year. The new issue will be published on September 23. What conclusions can be drawn since the launch of your magazine?

Stephanie Neureuter: We are very satisfied with the response we have had so far. Both from our readers and from our advertising customers who support us. But the feedback from our network of “premium clinics and practices”, who see Premium Quarterly as a platform for a specialist magazine, has also been very positive.

Robert Emich: There are moments of surprise when people say, “I didn't expect to find such interesting and inspiring stories in your magazine. The look of Premium Quarterly is also very well received. Of course, we are delighted to have obviously struck a nerve.

As a quarterly magazine, PQ is entering a highly competitive market segment. What features make PQ stand out and how does Premium Quarterly differ from similar publications on the market?

Neureuter: We focus on the topics of health and premium lifestyle. However, our approach to health topics is not problem-oriented in the sense of the disease perspective, but is much more about being healthy and staying healthy. These are topics that concern us all. Especially after corona, the topic of health and self-care has taken on a whole new meaning. I think what makes us special is the mix and interplay of topics. Not only wellbeing and mindfulness, but also art, culture, travel, portraits and interviews play a major role. Basically, it's about everything that makes life more beautiful and healthier. The key features of Premium Quarterly are its distinctive visual language and quality journalism.

Emich: I would summarize it with the following sentence: You can be beautiful and smart at the same time. We attach great importance to visuals and imagery, including a certain wink at a high level. The written word is just as important. The editorial process always requires that there is something in it that we didn't know yet, that we want to know more about and that we want to read further. It is important to us that the topics are thought outside the box. There needs to be an element of surprise. Both in terms of the visuals and the approach to the story.

Robert Emich: “Munich is a great network hub”

The presence of art and culture topics in the magazine is striking. How important are these areas for you from an editorial point of view?

Emich: They interest us personally. Health and wellbeing are the big superstructure for the magazine, but we have the lifestyle as a whole in mind. A beautiful lifestyle includes culture in all its facets. One of our past issues had an art focus. There is a lot of overlap between the topics of medicine, culture and art, which is why this combination of topics makes sense.

To what extent does the editorial team benefit from the media location in Munich?

Neureuter: I think the motto of our podcast sums it up quite well: “Feel good, live better”. Many things come together in Munich. The quality of life is high and you are surrounded by people who have a positive attitude towards life.

Emich: From a very practical point of view, we are very lucky to have a great print shop in Munich. As a physical production site, the city is hugely important to us. Apart from that, the city is a great networking hub with many fascinating personalities from the industry and legendary media companies.

Neureuter: A large part of the doctors' network is also based in the city. We maintain an intensive exchange with them. It's exciting that a lot is really happening here. Many people love Berlin in this respect. However, I would always speak out in favor of Munich, especially because there are so many start-ups here.

Which readers should feel addressed by PQ?

Neureuter: It should appeal to anyone who is health-conscious and interested in an upscale lifestyle.

Stephanie Neureuter: Premium Quarterly should become a pure B2B magazine

In times of digital journalism, PQ is firmly committed to high-quality print. What makes you continue to believe in the future of printed quality journalism?

Emich: The response from the major publishers to our publication was: it's great that you dare to make a magazine like this in these times - chapeau! Which is ironic in a way when you think of the big publishing houses that are currently discontinuing many publications and laying off staff.

Neureuter: We originally conceived Premium Quarterly as a pure B2B product, not so much B2C. Our luck was my father's work as a publisher and his appreciation and support for Robert Emich, our editor-in-chief. He said, you're doing it now! And then one thing led to another. In June 2022, we actually ended up on the newsstand. There may have been people who smiled at our plan and didn't believe in us. Our special distribution system, which focuses on the “Premium Clinics and Practices” network, is certainly also important for our success.

What is special about this network? How did the idea come about and why is it so important for Premium Quarterly's business model?

Neureuter: The basic idea was: there are all these doctors and clinics and they all have a reading circle in their waiting room, but there was no publication for their level of medicine. So the idea was, let's make a magazine that meets the demands and lifestyle of the patients. The result was that we also went into distribution because the feedback was so good and the requests came in. The nice thing about it is that you have reliable readers via the doctors' distribution channel. We get the feedback that PQ is being read and is also being taken home in large numbers.

Premium Quarterly aims to provide a platform for the doctors' network

PQ is to be developed into a “holistic health hub” in the future. What can we imagine by this?

Neureuter: We are currently working on this vision under the term “Premium Medical Circle”. The term describes the framework we are creating with a magazine, podcast and events for medical topics and experts. In the future, we also want to take the doctors' network even further outwards and offer it a voice and platform. The “Premium Medical Circle” creates a common umbrella for solutions and media offerings for everyone who wants to lead a long, healthy life and is looking for information or networking.

Can you already tell us something about the theme of the new issue?

Emich: The next issue was also created out of a certain sense of timing. Originally, we had the working title “new luxury”, but in the course of our discussions at the conferences, this developed more and more in the direction of “new values”, “true values”. We will be looking closely at the question of what really has value in life apart from the luxury of possessions.