About OUTDOOR

OUTDOOR

OUTDOOR is the monthly German-language magazine for hiking, trekking and outdoor life published by Motor Presse Stuttgart. With a distributed circulation of around 32,895 copies (Q2 2023), it is one of the leading German-language outdoor magazines, covering the hiker's and trekker's world: tour reports from the Alps to the far north, hut treks, gear tests from rainwear to boots, and the service journalism of route planning. The 05/2025 issue's editorial — "just a few days in the mountains, and the world looks completely different" — captures the magazine's promise: the quick escape from everyday life, with the direction given and food and accommodation taken care of.

Overview

OUTDOOR is a monthly special-interest magazine for outdoor enthusiasts, published by the Motor Presse Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG in Stuttgart. Its programme is the hiker's, trekker's and mountain traveller's complete world: tests of outdoor gear — the rainwear tested in the 05/2025 issue, "astonishingly affordable products with top quality" — tips and tours, travel reports and service journalism. The 05/2025 issue illustrates the format: hut treks in the Karwendel, Zillertal, Tessin and Valais; the "Kurz notiert" news section; the brand-choice (Markenwahl) reader vote held every two years with prizes worth 23,000 euros; and the editorial's hut-tour proposals with the tested rainwear. The magazine's distribution was around 32,895 copies (Q2 2023, distributed circulation), making it one of the German-speaking market's established outdoor titles alongside the publisher's siblings Mountainbike, Roadbike, klettern and Runner's World. The digital edition is available through the publisher's digital kiosk (digital.motorpresse.de), where reading samples such as the 05/2025 issue document the magazine's current programme. The social channels — facebook.com/outdoormagazin, instagram.com/outdoor_magazin, tiktok.com/@outdoor_magazin — extend the magazine into the outdoor community's daily feed.

History

OUTDOOR belongs to the Motor Presse Stuttgart's sport-and-leisure division, which the publisher built up over more than a decade: alongside Mountainbike and OUTDOOR the house published Runner's World, Cavallo, Pferdebörse, KANU, klettern and the DSV aktiv ski and sport magazine, plus promobil and CARAVANING. The 2006 Road BIKE launch press release names Olaf Beck — then publisher of Mountainbike and editor-in-chief of OUTDOOR — as the outdoor division's head, documenting the magazine's established position by the mid-2000s. The magazine's history is the German outdoor boom's history: the hiking renaissance, the trekking travel market, the gear industry's technical revolution from Gore-Tex to ultralight. The biennial brand-choice (Markenwahl) — "we want to know!" with the 23,000-euro prize draw — has become the industry's reader-voted seal. The editorial leadership changed over the years: Olaf Beck led the title in the 2000s; the 05/2025 issue names Alex Krapp as editor-in-chief, with the editorial team including Anette Ander and Tobias Wirth. The magazine's exact founding year is not publicly confirmed in the sources available. The Motor Presse Stuttgart itself — founded in 1946 by Paul Pietsch, Ernst Troeltsch and Josef Hummel in Freiburg, renamed from Motorsport GmbH to Motor-Presse Verlag in 1949, moved to Stuttgart in 1950 — celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2026, with the publishing group active in 15 countries with over 30 magazine titles.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's programme follows the outdoor year's rhythm. The tour reports take the readers to the mountains: the Karwendel, the Zillertal, the Tessin, the Valais in the 05/2025 issue — the hut treks where the direction is given and the accommodation is taken care of, from the Rifugio Nuvolau in the Dolomites to the Cabane de Bertol at 3,311 metres in Switzerland, where the room with a view needs no extra booking. The gear tests serve the buyer's decision: the rainwear test in the 05/2025 issue, the boots, the backpacks, the tents — the "astonishingly affordable products with top quality" that the testers find. The service journalism covers the planning: the route descriptions, the hut booking, the weather, the safety. The "Kurz notiert" section carries the scene's news: what moves the editors this month. The brand-choice (Markenwahl) every two years lets the readers vote for the industry's best brands — the 23,000-euro prize draw as the participation incentive. The reportages go beyond the Alps: the summit dreamers at Sweden's Kebnekaise, the far-north treks, the long-distance trails. The gear tests serve the buyer's decision with the magazine's test authority: the rainwear, the boots, the backpacks, the tents — tested on the trail, not in the lab, by editors who hike the routes they describe. The service journalism completes the package: the hut-booking practicalities, the weather-reading, the safety rules, the packing lists — the knowledge that turns the tour report's inspiration into the reader's own trip. The brand-choice every two years is the industry's democratic moment: the readers voting the best brands, the manufacturers campaigning for the votes, the 23,000-euro prize draw ensuring the turnout. The magazine's editorial voice — the 05/2025 editorial's "just a few days in the mountains, and the world looks completely different" — is the hiker's philosophy: the quick distance from everyday life, the tired evening high above things, the world that manages excellently without you for a few days.

Organization and Ownership

OUTDOOR is published by the Motor Presse Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG in Stuttgart (Leuschnerstraße 1, 70174 Stuttgart), one of Europe's leading special-interest and lifestyle media houses. The publishing group — with Motor Presse Hamburg — is active in 15 countries with licence editions and syndications and publishes over 30 magazine titles, including auto motor und sport, promobil, MOTORRAD, Men's Health, Runner's World, Mountainbike, Cavallo and klettern. The ownership: the majority is held by the Pietsch family interests, with 15 percent held by Hermann Dietrich-Troeltsch; Andreas Geiger and Jörg Mannsperger were appointed managing directors in September 2019, and Kay Labinsky has been the Geschäftsleiter since April 2024. The editor-in-chief of OUTDOOR is Alex Krapp (as of the 05/2025 issue); Olaf Beck — who also published Mountainbike and Road BIKE — led the title as editor-in-chief in the 2000s. The magazine's commercial model is the special-interest journal's: the distributed circulation of around 32,895 copies (Q2 2023), the outdoor industry's advertisers — the gear manufacturers, the tourism boards, the hut associations — and the digital edition plus the social channels. The 2001 circulation-falsification affair — 16 titles' figures up to 10 percent too high, the publisher's readmission to the IVW in Q4 2002 — is part of the house's history but long past.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website is outdoor-magazin.de, complemented by the digital edition on digital.motorpresse.de with reading samples such as the 05/2025 issue. The social channels carry the outdoor community: facebook.com/outdoormagazin, instagram.com/outdoor_magazin and tiktok.com/@outdoor_magazin — the handles printed in every issue's imprint. The Motor Presse Stuttgart's digital strategy — online portals analogous to the house's magazines offering news and information on each topic free of charge — frames OUTDOOR's digital presence: the print monthly for the tours and the tests, the digital channels for the daily outdoor news. The 2022 acquisition of the digital company Upfit (individualised nutrition plans) shows the group's digital direction. In the German outdoor media landscape OUTDOOR occupies the hiker's pole: alongside the climbing-focused klettern, the bike titles and Runner's World in the same house, OUTDOOR is the magazine of the hut trek, the long-distance trail and the mountain — monthly from Stuttgart, in print, digital and social, for the readers who want, as the 05/2025 editorial puts it, just a few days in the mountains to see the world differently — every single month, without fail, from Stuttgart.