Following the end of the free-road-map era, Gousha distributed maps through retailers, and published a number of travel guides and other travel-related books.
Brands under the Gousha imprint from the 1970s onward included Chek-Chart and Fastmap, one of the first lines of laminate-encapsulated maps.
Harry Mathias Gousha, a sales executive for Rand McNally, left that company in 1926 to start his own map company out of Chicago, quickly becoming Rand McNally's chief competitor by offering the Touraide: a spiral-bound book with road maps, points of interest, and accommodations that was custom assembled for individual buyers.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of sources were studied to continually improve and update the cartographic library for veracity of information and viability of sales.
[citation needed] Finally, the company was purchased by Rand McNally in 1996; by then, Viacom had become the parent of Simon & Schuster.