Archives for February 15th, 2007

A story from leading tabloid Slovenske Novice. Click to enlarge.

This one could hurt, because National Geographic has always been good to Slovenia. The country was included in their “50 Tours of a Lifetime” list. They also published a long feature by one adventurous couple, Hiking the Via Alpina, which included some beautiful photos and even a debate about which Slovenian beer is better. (The couple couldn’t agree.)

A Slovenian edition of the magazine hit newsstands last April and shortly thereafter they decided to release a Slovenian edition of National Geographic Traveler called National Geographic Popotnik. Their motto: Nobody Knows This World Better.

You know where this is going, right?

The editor of NGT, Keith Bellows, came to Ljubljana earlier this month to celebrate the launch of the new magazine and, apparently, to try to prove the motto wrong. Slovenske Novice claims the National Tourism Office also paid for his expenses. I should repeat that Slovenske Novice is a tabloid, and that it’s not exactly a beacon of quality journalism. Then again no Slovenian newspaper really is, so they’re pretty much as good as it gets.

SN writes that Mr. Bellows:

…expressed his satisfaction with the fact that he could be present at such an important milestone in publishing in Slovakia. The chief editor of the Slovenian edition of National Geographic, Miha KovaÄ?, who was sitting next to him, immediately whispered in his ear that they were in Slovenia. The American editor apologized unconvincingly and continued with his presentation.

I searched around a bit but found no other mention of this. RTV has an uneventful little story, and 24ur.com has a lousy search engine. I’m glad in a way. I don’t think I could handle it if were true anyway, so I suggest we all assume it’s a made-up story and leave it at that.

(Big thanks to Matty and Mare!)