When Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber acquired Psychologies in 1997, many people misunderstood him, to put it mildly. How could one explain that at the age of 60, an experienced media mogul bought a little-known magazine and set out to conquer the glossy market with it?
However, he won: the circulation in France soared five times in three years, foreign versions were a huge success. The secret of this success lies in the new format of a women’s magazine discovered by Servan-Schreiber, which sincerely and seriously speaks to the reader about the most important things: fears, emotions, courage to exist. At the same time, the founder of modern Psychologies assigned a very modest role to himself: “I am a pessimist and I admit it. My role as a journalist is to give an opportunity to understand the situation, and not to play the prophet.” However, in the case of our magazine, Jean-Louis managed to prophesy a happy life for him. And he took on other projects …