National Geographic
National Geographic (formerly The National Geographic Magazine,[3] sometimes branded as NAT GEO[4]) is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners.[5] The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine months after the establishment of the society, but is now a popular magazine. In 1905, it began including pictures, a style for which it became well-known. Its first color photos appeared in the 1910s. During the Cold War, the magazine committed itself to present a balanced view of the physical and human geography of countries beyond the Iron Curtain. Later, the magazine became outspoken on environmental issues.
For other uses, see National Geographic (disambiguation).
Until 2015, the magazine was completely owned and managed by the National Geographic Society. Since 2015, controlling interest has been held by National Geographic Partners.
Topics of features generally concern geography, history, nature, science, and world culture. The magazine is well known for its distinctive appearance: a thick square-bound glossy format with a yellow rectangular border. Map supplements from National Geographic Maps are included with subscriptions, and it is available in a traditional printed edition and an interactive online edition.
As of 1995, the magazine was circulated worldwide in nearly forty local-language editions and had a global circulation of at least 6.5 million per month including 3.5 million within the U.S.[6][7], down from about 12 million in the late 1980s. As of 2015, the magazine had won 25 National Magazine Awards.[8]
As of October 2022, its Instagram page has 243 million followers, the most of any account not belonging to an individual celebrity.[9] The magazine's circulation as of December 31, 2023 was about 570,000.[10]
In 2023, National Geographic laid off all staff writers and will stop US newsstand sales in the next year.[11][12][13]
Administration[edit]
Editors-in-chief[edit]
The magazine had a single "editor" from 1888 to 1920. From 1920 to 1967, the chief editorship was held by the president of the National Geographic Society. Since 1967, the magazine has been overseen by its own "editor" and/or "editor-in-chief". The list of editors-in-chief includes three generations of the Grosvenor family between 1903 and 1980.[23]
Spanish Gypsy (National Geographic Magazine March 1917)
A photo of a glacier taken on an expedition to the North Pole (National Geographic Magazine January 1910)
Distribution[edit]
In the United States, National Geographic is available only to subscribers beginning with the January 2024 issue. For the first 110 years of the magazine's existence, membership in the National Geographic Society was the only way to receive it.[44] Newsstand sales, which began in 1998, ceased in 2023, following a year of layoffs and a shift in focus to digital formats amid the decline of the print media industry.[45][46]
Worldwide editions are sold on newsstands in addition to regular subscriptions. In several countries, such as Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey and Ukraine, National Geographic paved the way for a subscription model in addition to traditional newsstand sales.
Awards[edit]
On May 1, 2008, National Geographic won three National Magazine Awards—an award solely for its written content—in the reporting category for an article by Peter Hessler on the Chinese economy; an award in the photojournalism category for work by John Stanmeyer on malaria in the Third World; and a prestigious award for general excellence.[47]
Between 1980 and 2011, the magazine has won a total of 24 National Magazine Awards.[48]
In May 2006, 2007, and 2011, National Geographic magazine won the American Society of Magazine Editors' General Excellence Award in the over two million circulation category. In 2010, National Geographic Magazine received the top ASME awards for photojournalism and essay. In 2011, National Geographic Magazine received the top-award from ASME—the Magazine of the Year Award.
In April 2014, National Geographic received the National Magazine Award ("Ellie") for best tablet edition for its multimedia presentation of Robert Draper's story "The Last Chase," about the final days of a tornado researcher who was killed in the line of duty.[49]
In February 2017, National Geographic received the National Magazine Award ("Ellie") for best website.[50] National Geographic won the 2020 Webby Award for News & Magazines in the category Apps, Mobile & Voice.[51] National Geographic won the 2020 Webby Award and Webby People's Voice Award for Magazine in the category Web.[51]
Controversies[edit]
On the magazine's February 1982 cover, the pyramids of Giza were altered, resulting in the first major scandal of the digital photography age and contributing to photography's "waning credibility".[52]
The cover of the October 1988 issue featured a photo of a large ivory portrait of a male, whose authenticity, particularly the alleged ice age provenance, has been questioned.[53]
In 1999, the magazine was embroiled in the Archaeoraptor scandal, in which it purported to have a fossil linking birds to dinosaurs. The fossil was a forgery.[54]
In 2010, the magazine's Your Shot competition was awarded to American filmmaker and photographer William Lascelles for a photograph presented as a portrait of a dog with fighter jets flying over its shoulder. Lascelles had in reality created the image using photo editing software.[55]
After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, National Geographic published maps with the Crimean peninsula marked as "contested", contrary to international norms.[56][57]
In March 2018, the editor of National Geographic, Susan Goldberg, said that historically the magazine's coverage of people around the world had been racist. Goldberg stated that the magazine ignored non-white Americans and showed different groups as exotic, thereby promoting racial clichés.[58]