In Finland, the market for popular science magazines is growing. In this segment already several magazines compete for the attention of readers, amongst which Tiede magazine from Sanoma Magazines Finland. On March 4th GEO, a license title from Germany’s G+J, will join the ranks. Editor-in-Chief (EiC) Katriina Palo-Närhinen explains why she believes the Finns will embrace GEO as well.

According to Katriina, Tiede and GEO supplement each other. “GEO has an international focus, Tiede is Finland-oriented.” In addition, Tiede and the other magazines in this segment are more-oriented towards science. GEO’s topics vary from history and medicine to nature and ecology, and the magazine also deals with daily social and religious issues. “I call GEO a reportage magazine. GEO probably competes head-on with National Geographic from Bonnier. Both reportage magazines have an international perspective and put much emphasis on photography, unlike the others.”

The Finnish edition of GEO is the 17th in the world. G+J provides a large part of the contents that needs to be used. This may sound harsh, but Katriina says it’s a nice thing. “G+J offers us entire InDesign lay-outs with high-quality pictures. We have to use 90% of the original contents, but by ourselves we could never afford to send journalists for five weeks to Christmas Island for a reportage for example. The quality of the international material is very high, there’s no ‘German bias’ whatsoever. On top of this we can suggest topics for upcoming reportages at the annual EiC meetings as well.”

GEO will be launched with an initial print-run of 70,000 copies. After three years an average circulation of 30,000 should be reached. However, GEO has yet to establish itself as a brand in Finland. “That’s why we will introduce GEO in as many points-of-sale as attractively as possible,” comments Katriina. “The 116-page launch issue will be priced-off from €8.90 to €1 only. It will contain a fifty page reportage. Out of those fifty pages, forty only consist of beautiful pictures. That clearly shows what GEO is all about.”

To raise the interest further, a teaser advertising campaign with beautiful photography was developed. All this has led to a good reception of GEO by advertisers. “We have budgeted a modest 4-8 ad pages per issue. The advertisers have shown a lot of positive interest and we hope that this will pay-off quickly. And after the launch, I am sure that the readers will embrace GEO just as well.”