National Geographic magazine lays off six of its top editors
September 8, 2022 10:48 AM Subscribe
High-level cuts are unusual for any established magazine, and they are unprecedented for National Geographic, which has enjoyed stable editorial leadership since its founding by the nonprofit National Geographic Society of Washington in 1888. (archive.today version)
Is it related to this?
Why We Put a Transgender Girl on the Cover of National Geographic
We published an issue focused on gender at a time when beliefs about gender are rapidly shifting.
BY SUSAN GOLDBERG
If CNN's current arc is anything to go by, I suspect it is related to that.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 10:55 AM on September 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
Why We Put a Transgender Girl on the Cover of National Geographic
We published an issue focused on gender at a time when beliefs about gender are rapidly shifting.
BY SUSAN GOLDBERG
If CNN's current arc is anything to go by, I suspect it is related to that.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 10:55 AM on September 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
It's nice that they took the time to run the word salad algorithm and provide an explanation for the layoffs. I'm sure staff will find it comforting to know the magazine is, "realigning key departments to help deepen engagement with...readers while also nurturing existing business models and developing new lines of revenue."
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:34 AM on September 8, 2022 [37 favorites]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:34 AM on September 8, 2022 [37 favorites]
Is it related to this?
That issue was from Jan 2017, Susan Goldberg, the EIC at the time, left earlier in the year, reportedly for a professor/dean job at ASU's Cronkite School of Journalism. Hard to say if that issue impacted her departure or not.
Not sure how her replacement EIC, Nathan Lump, aligns on that specific topic but he is a gay man and his twitter feed seems pretty center-left.
posted by JauntyFedora at 11:55 AM on September 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
That issue was from Jan 2017, Susan Goldberg, the EIC at the time, left earlier in the year, reportedly for a professor/dean job at ASU's Cronkite School of Journalism. Hard to say if that issue impacted her departure or not.
Not sure how her replacement EIC, Nathan Lump, aligns on that specific topic but he is a gay man and his twitter feed seems pretty center-left.
posted by JauntyFedora at 11:55 AM on September 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
I haven't been a Nat Geo subscriber since my teens in the 80's: I adored the giant fold-out maps that came with each issue. And the hologram cover! And the soft floppy record insert of blue whale songs! The magazine was probably my first real introduction to environmentalism.
The Nat Geo issue covers racked at the supermarket checkout today often appear to have religious themes: "Wonders of the Holy Land", "Life of Jesus", that kind of thing. I remember the magazine of my youth being quite secular; I wondered if that had also been an editorial change.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 12:39 PM on September 8, 2022 [16 favorites]
The Nat Geo issue covers racked at the supermarket checkout today often appear to have religious themes: "Wonders of the Holy Land", "Life of Jesus", that kind of thing. I remember the magazine of my youth being quite secular; I wondered if that had also been an editorial change.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 12:39 PM on September 8, 2022 [16 favorites]
I’ve always thought of National Geographic as a place where seldom is heard a discouraging word (about any form of fossil fuel extraction), and the miners and the oil barons play, so I’m inclined to think Global Warming denialism is at the root of any conspiracy if there is one.
posted by jamjam at 12:46 PM on September 8, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by jamjam at 12:46 PM on September 8, 2022 [6 favorites]
My dad wrote frequently for National Geographic from the 60s through the 80s and was awarded both the National Geographic Society La Gorce Gold Medal Award and National Geographic Society Centennial Award for his work as an underwater archaeologist. I remember the thrill of visiting editor in chief Gilbert Grosvenor in his sprawling office when I was a kid, and it was just as I'd hoped it would be, heavy with oak and full of artifacts from around the world.
National Geographic had gravity. (I realize that for a long time it also viewed the world through an exceptionally Western lens, although it did evolve.)
I knew it was all over a few years ago when someone bought my kids a crappy National Geographic branded toy robot that sparked and died the first time we turned it on.
posted by bassomatic at 12:59 PM on September 8, 2022 [38 favorites]
National Geographic had gravity. (I realize that for a long time it also viewed the world through an exceptionally Western lens, although it did evolve.)
I knew it was all over a few years ago when someone bought my kids a crappy National Geographic branded toy robot that sparked and died the first time we turned it on.
posted by bassomatic at 12:59 PM on September 8, 2022 [38 favorites]
I often wondered how long NatGeo could stay healthy as a subscription-based print magazine as we moved further and further into our digital future. The special editions I often saw on the grocery store racks always seemed to cheapen the name, rather than expand the readership.
Sad news, indeed.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:16 PM on September 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Sad news, indeed.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:16 PM on September 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I knew it was all over a few years ago when someone bought my kids a crappy National Geographic branded toy robot that sparked and died the first time we turned it on.
Counterpoint: I recently got a National Geographic rock tumbler from a Buy Nothing group. A year later when I got around to using it I realized I hadn't gotten the power adapter. I called the helpline printed in the manual and they sent me a new one for free. So maybe there's still hope.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 1:29 PM on September 8, 2022
Counterpoint: I recently got a National Geographic rock tumbler from a Buy Nothing group. A year later when I got around to using it I realized I hadn't gotten the power adapter. I called the helpline printed in the manual and they sent me a new one for free. So maybe there's still hope.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 1:29 PM on September 8, 2022
Nat Geo changed leadership or owners or something in 2015
posted by Jacen at 1:31 PM on September 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Jacen at 1:31 PM on September 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oh man, I mostly hear about NatGeo these days as funders of really interesting science and conservation fieldwork. Hopefully that's an insulated arm of the business...
posted by kaibutsu at 1:49 PM on September 8, 2022
posted by kaibutsu at 1:49 PM on September 8, 2022
Wow, I hadn't realized Disney owns FOX these days.
Not Fox News. The Murdochs kept that, but sold the other properties to Disney.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 1:55 PM on September 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Not Fox News. The Murdochs kept that, but sold the other properties to Disney.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 1:55 PM on September 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
The magazine and its news site, which are based in Washington, have been owned since 2019 by the Walt Disney Co., which acquired a majority stake in the famed yellow-bordered publication as part of its $71 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox, controlled by Rupert Murdoch.I'll take "Sentences My Grandparents Would Have Thought Were Gibberish" for $800, Alex.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:43 PM on September 8, 2022 [11 favorites]
Ha! And every time I mention how consistently awful and disgusting Disney is, people go on about how it's ok to like the art, their kids love it, etc.
Who do you think your kids learned it from? This is what a anti-worker, anti-democracy, growth-obsessed multi-national megacorps do.
Mourn the history all you want, I'm a little sad to see this brand go up like a dumpster fire over the years too. But don't cry to me until you stop collectively worshipping these rats in particular.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:22 PM on September 8, 2022 [8 favorites]
Who do you think your kids learned it from? This is what a anti-worker, anti-democracy, growth-obsessed multi-national megacorps do.
Mourn the history all you want, I'm a little sad to see this brand go up like a dumpster fire over the years too. But don't cry to me until you stop collectively worshipping these rats in particular.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:22 PM on September 8, 2022 [8 favorites]
Yeah, the amount of stuff Disney owns is pretty shocking. I was sort of darkly amused to realize last election cycle that FiveThirtyEight is owned by Disney, via ABC.
posted by wesleyac at 5:33 PM on September 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by wesleyac at 5:33 PM on September 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
"Now, look at it! Gaze upon my empire of joy!"
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:59 PM on September 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:59 PM on September 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I deleted FiveThirtyEight from my favorites the day I opened the page and was greeted by 'Can Donald Trump ever get credit for the things he's right about?' written by Nate Silver himself.
posted by jamjam at 6:09 PM on September 8, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by jamjam at 6:09 PM on September 8, 2022 [8 favorites]
One of the people possibly affected was an expert on a NatGeo tour I recently completed. Their presence as a last-minute substitute was interesting in many ways - from the expertise they brought to tour topics to their take on Disney. Their presence was noteworthy also because the "Trips" business isn't under Disney; so they made jump across organizations to sub on the tour. I hope they weren't among the axed.
posted by achrise at 6:29 PM on September 8, 2022
posted by achrise at 6:29 PM on September 8, 2022
I’ve always thought of National Geographic as a place where seldom is heard a discouraging word (about any form of fossil fuel extraction), and the miners and the oil barons play, so I’m inclined to think Global Warming denialism is at the root of any conspiracy if there is one.
I don't think so. I've been following the National Geographic since before I was born. Old issues are a fascinating view into the American Zeitgeist for the decades that they represent: plenty of cold-war aerospace propaganda in the 1950s, and weird east-Asia interest in the late 1960s. Plenty of Oil adverts sure.
In the 1970s they started showing some curiosity about alternative energy experiments, not quite condemning fossil fuel extraction industries, but not quite as much enthusiasm (still taking their adverts (and those odd military school listings)).
National Geographic has always been fairly progressive about climate change and environment issues into the 21st century.
(my personal opinion is that the corporate forces that be are just looking at the bottom line of profits, which just happen to be dialling Not on the side of journalism advocating against total environmental collapse. They don't care either way otherwise.)
posted by ovvl at 6:58 PM on September 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
I don't think so. I've been following the National Geographic since before I was born. Old issues are a fascinating view into the American Zeitgeist for the decades that they represent: plenty of cold-war aerospace propaganda in the 1950s, and weird east-Asia interest in the late 1960s. Plenty of Oil adverts sure.
In the 1970s they started showing some curiosity about alternative energy experiments, not quite condemning fossil fuel extraction industries, but not quite as much enthusiasm (still taking their adverts (and those odd military school listings)).
National Geographic has always been fairly progressive about climate change and environment issues into the 21st century.
(my personal opinion is that the corporate forces that be are just looking at the bottom line of profits, which just happen to be dialling Not on the side of journalism advocating against total environmental collapse. They don't care either way otherwise.)
posted by ovvl at 6:58 PM on September 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
It's nice that they took the time to run the word salad algorithm and provide an explanation for the layoffs. I'm sure staff will find it comforting to know the magazine is, "realigning key departments to help deepen engagement with...readers while also nurturing existing business models and developing new lines of revenue."
That seems pretty clear to me. "We want more clicks and more money, no matter what it takes."
posted by clawsoon at 8:40 PM on September 8, 2022
That seems pretty clear to me. "We want more clicks and more money, no matter what it takes."
posted by clawsoon at 8:40 PM on September 8, 2022
what I percieved to be the constant racism and sexism
Yeah, they've made some moves but it hasn't been super great.
2018 NatGeo For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It
2021 Vox National Geographic faced up to its racist past. Did it actually get better?
The historian whom NatGeo engaged in 2018, in later 2018:
Yeah, they've made some moves but it hasn't been super great.
2018 NatGeo For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It
2021 Vox National Geographic faced up to its racist past. Did it actually get better?
The historian whom NatGeo engaged in 2018, in later 2018:
The magazine has changed significantly for the better over the last few decades, but the habit of seeing black and brown people as the other — that is, of viewing them from the standpoint of whiteness — has never completely gone away.posted by away for regrooving at 11:14 PM on September 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
The magazine was born at the height of so-called “scientific” racism and imperialism — including American imperialism. This culture of white supremacy shaped the outlook of the magazine’s editors, writers, and photographers, who were always white and almost always men.
[...]
I was as disappointed by what the cover didn’t do as by what it does. The magazine missed an opportunity to disrupt entrenched ways of seeing the West. Why didn’t it use a portrait of a Native American? Or if you wanted to stay with the theme of conquest, why not an image of a white pioneer woman?
I deleted FiveThirtyEight from my favorites the day I opened the page and was greeted by 'Can Donald Trump ever get credit for the things he's right about?' written by Nate Silver himself.
Doesn't pay to read too much into the fact that something resembling an idea can occasionally be discerned within the endless word salad that spews forth from between those tiny ears. It's only pareidolia.
posted by flabdablet at 6:49 AM on September 9, 2022
Doesn't pay to read too much into the fact that something resembling an idea can occasionally be discerned within the endless word salad that spews forth from between those tiny ears. It's only pareidolia.
posted by flabdablet at 6:49 AM on September 9, 2022
After my dad donated one of his kidneys to my uncle in 1977, my uncle purchased my dad a lifetime subscription to NatGeo. I loved that magazine so much as a kid, and at least partially attribute my career in Geospatial Analysis to that love...
My dad has considered cancelling or pausing the subscription due to a clear decline in the quality of the magazine. Ironically, the magazine's decline occurred roughly around the same time my dad's donated kidney finally started to fail.
posted by schyler523 at 8:51 AM on September 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
My dad has considered cancelling or pausing the subscription due to a clear decline in the quality of the magazine. Ironically, the magazine's decline occurred roughly around the same time my dad's donated kidney finally started to fail.
posted by schyler523 at 8:51 AM on September 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
we still have a h/c subscription to NG at the house but I frankly feel a vague dread when it comes in; I usually say to my wife "oh, another issue of 'here's how we're fucked' just came".
posted by hearthpig at 4:51 PM on September 9, 2022
posted by hearthpig at 4:51 PM on September 9, 2022
I grew up with National Geographic. When I got my first story, my mom cried. Probably the only thing I've ever done that she was unequivocally proud of. Pre-FOX, natch. Sad days.
posted by cyndigo at 8:20 PM on September 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by cyndigo at 8:20 PM on September 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Richard Pryor called National Geographic The Black Man's Playboy with more than a little justice. Back then there was hardly an issue without bare-breasted women of color, but never ever any white nudity.
posted by jamjam at 9:03 PM on September 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by jamjam at 9:03 PM on September 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
The only interaction I ever had with the magazine was cutting out pictures to use in collages in primary school. That and Good Housekeeping was usually all that got donated to the classrooms.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:40 PM on September 10, 2022
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:40 PM on September 10, 2022
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