Values

C
an a person create 27 magazines in
as many years, while managing 60 titles
in eight different countries? Axel Ganz
can. When he came to Gruner + Jahr
(G+J) in 1978 at the age of 41, he was
tasked with building up a magazine
publishing unit in Paris. When he retired
in 2005 at the age of 67, Ganz, a
member of the executive board, could
look back on a career that included establishing
France’s second-largest
magazine publishing group, as well as
magazine subsidiaries in countries
such as Russia, Italy, Spain and Poland.
When Ganz shares anecdotes from
his working life, it quickly becomes
clear just how much energy – and how
many air miles – it took to create so
many titles and lead so many of them to
success. In 1987, for example, Ganz was
simultaneously overseeing the launch
of a women’s magazine in Britain and a
television magazine in France. “During
the day, I was in London, where we were
working on the launch of ‘Prima’. Late
in the evening when I was back in Paris,
I’d go from the airport straight to the offi
ce to work all night long with our editorial
team on ‘Télé Loisirs’, as it was
just about to debut,” he recalled.
Ganz has many such stories. Like
the time he was bringing “Gala” onto
newsstands in France, while at the
same time creating a magazine publishing
company in Poland in 1993. Or
how, in 1994, he was jetting from Paris
to New York to negotiate the acquisition
of fi ve US magazine titles, among them
the popular “Family Circle”. At the time,
he was already in his 50s, and, in many
respects, had proved his worth to G+J
many times over. Yet he never became
tired or complacent; the indefatigable
magazine maker was always much too
fascinated by the world of magazine
publishing for that.
When G+J board member Jan Hensmann
met Axel Ganz at an event in
1978, he was immediately impressed.
At that time, Ganz was working as a
manager for a different publisher, and
had previously worked as a journalist.
Hensmann knew that it was extremely
rare to make such a career leap successfully.
And he also knew he’d found the
man G+J needed for a special mission:
the establishment of a magazine sub-
– 16 –
TAKING MAGAZINES ABROAD
The
magazine maker
The managers of G+J were quick to
notice the many talents of Axel Ganz.
Here was a man who could be both: a
journalist and a businessman. Getting
him wouldn’t be easy. But when they
offered him the chance to create
magazine titles in France, he came.
And when he had the opportunity to
do more of the same in a host of
other countries, he stayed.