Values

trigued by the articles about foreign
countries and cultures, and after six issues,
the new monthly already had
more than 200,000 readers and was
turning a profi t.
As the magazine was so successful
in Germany, G+J decided to take “Geo”
to the United States, the biggest magazine
market in the world. The company
was willing to bet that stories about
Bengal tigers and desert fossils would
interest Americans just as much as Germans.
The articles would only have to
be translated into English.
In 1979, “Geo” appeared on the U.S.
market – and was a huge fl op. For years,
the publishing managers at G+J did
everything they could to make the U.S.
edition a success, in vain. “Too expensive,
too European, too environmental
and too political,” the publishers were
forced to conclude. “When I became
CEO of G+J in 1981, “Geo USA” was already
a hopeless case, and the board
decided to sell. By that time, we’d lost
about 30 million German marks (15
million euros),” remembers Gerd
Schulte-Hillen, who continued to serve
as the head of G+J until 2000.
At the same time as the U.S. version,
G+J also brought out a French version,
and faced similar diffi culties.
There was no magazine like “Stern” to
Editor-in-chief Peter-Matthias
Gaede consults his head of
photography, Ruth Eichhorn,
on photo selection
– 14 –
serve as a trusted link to win over subscribers.
And the French prefer to buy
magazines spontaneously at a kiosk
rather than take out a subscription.
Axel Ganz, who had moved to Paris to
head up the French subsidiary in
charge of “Geo,” responded to these
cultural differences. He made changes
to the cover so that the magazine was
more visible on the shelf. From the
start, he was convinced that French
“Geo” could only be successful if it had
its own editorial team. It was a risky and
expensive approach, but it worked. The
local editorial team moved French topics
into the spotlight, set their own focus,
and increasingly found favor with
readers. By the mid-1980s, circulation
had reached more than 800,000 copies.
Here, unlike in the U.S., determination
paid off. Strengthened by his success in
France, Axel Ganz launched a Spanish
edition of “Geo” in 1987, modeled on
the French edition.
By this point, “Geo” had long since
separated from “Stern” to establish its
own editorial team for the domestic
market in Germany. Since contributors
to the magazine often spent several
weeks on location researching a single
topic, a natural next step was to print
monothematic, in-depth special editions.
At their inception, the biannual
“Specials” focused on very
different topics, such as pho-
“Geo’s” hot air balloon,
photographed on the “Geo”
Day of Species Diversity, 2007,
in Crawinkel, Germany
tography, weather, or space. But soon
they focused on destinations. “People
who were looking for information on a
certain city or country suddenly found
“Geo” special editions at the bookstore,”
says current publishing manager Gerd
Brüne, adding: “These magazines frequently
appealed to people who were
nothing like our core reader.” Many special
editions became valuable collectors’
items which continued to sell well even
years after they were fi rst published.
The knowledge of the contributors,
and their skill in turning complicated
subjects into easy-to-read copy, led to
the launch of a second special edition series
in 1987: “Geo Wissen.” The editorial
team sought to present scientifi c topics
from the fi elds of technology, natural science,
and medicine in a way that was
easily understandable for lay people. By
this time, “Geo” had become a household
name in Germany, and in addition to the
regular monthly issue, many readers also
subscribed to the specials.
From an economic point of view, it
was clear that there was a lot of potential
in founding a family of magazines
under the strong “Geo” name. But the
idea of starting a travel magazine didn’t
go over well with the journalists. “Many
of our colleagues associated it with rating
hotels and swimming pools, and
were worried about their integrity.
1
2
1 | “Geo” founder Rolf Gillhausen
served as editor-in-chief until 1978
2 | The first cover of “Geo-Wissen”
in 1987