National Geographic Lays Off Its Remaining Writers, Copies To Go Off Newsstands In 2024: Report

The organisation’s future editorial work will either be contracted out to freelancers or pieced together by editors.

National Geographic lays off its remaining writers

Source : nationalgeographic.com

The National Geographic magazine, first published in 1888, has reportedly laid off its last few staff writers and will no longer be sold on US newsstands starting next year. According to the Washington Post, 19 editorial staff writers, who have been affected by the layoffs were notified in April that these terminations were coming. The organisation’s future editorial work will either be contracted out to freelancers or pieced together by editors. The cuts also eliminated the magazine’s small audio department.

National Geographic told media outlets, however, that some writers would remain on staff.

The layoffs were the second in the last nine months, and the fourth since a series of ownership changes began in 2015. In an effort to reorganise the magazine’s editorial operations, Disney - magazine's parent company - removed six top editors in September last year, the Post reported.

The magazine that brought the best of science and the natural world to readers for over a century told CNN that it will continue to publish its monthly issues.

"Staffing changes will not change our ability to do this work, but rather give us more flexibility to tell different stories and meet our audiences where they are across our many platforms. Any insinuation that the recent changes will negatively impact the magazine, or the quality of our storytelling, is simply incorrect," it said.

At its peak in the late 1980s, National Geographic reached 12 million subscribers in the United States. It still remains among the most widely read magazines in America. At the end of 2022, the magazine had a subscriber base of 1.8 million, reported Washington post, citing the authoritative Alliance for Audited Media.

National Geographic was launched by Washington’s National Geographic Society, a foundation formed by 33 academics, scientists and would-be adventurers, including Alexander Graham Bell.