National Geographic, the science and nature journal that for greater than a century has despatched its writers and photographers to discover and doc a few of the most distant corners of the Earth, shed extra writers and different employees members this week in a spherical of layoffs that had been introduced in April.
The spherical of layoffs is the second on the Washington-based journal within the final yr, after various high editors have been laid off in September, and comes throughout a tumultuous time for the media trade as a number of news retailers have decreased head counts, together with Buzzfeed, Los Angeles Times, Vox Media and The Washington Post.
The firm that manages the publication, National Geographic Partners, mentioned in a press release on Thursday that National Geographic “will continue to publish a monthly magazine that is dedicated to exceptional multiplatform storytelling with cultural impact.”
“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,” the corporate mentioned, with out specifying the variety of individuals being laid off. “Any insinuation that the recent changes will negatively impact the magazine, or the quality of our storytelling, is simply incorrect.”
Those who have been laid off had been knowledgeable in April and reached their remaining week of employment with the corporate this week. The journal nonetheless has writers and editors on its employees, however the firm wouldn’t say whether or not they’re employed full-time or on a contractual foundation.
The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society, which personal the journal and its news website, didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon Thursday.
The society, which is a nonprofit group, introduced a take care of twenty first Century Fox in 2015 that was valued at $725 million, making a for-profit joint partnership dubbed National Geographic Partners. Fox owned 73 % of the partnership, and the National Geographic Society owned 27 %. That partnership grew to become a part of Disney in 2018 when the conglomerate acquired twenty first Century Fox belongings in a $71.3 billion deal.
The journal remains to be well-read at a time when different magazines have misplaced subscribers or folded their print publications fully. Through the top of final yr, the journal had greater than 1.7 million subscribers, based on the Alliance for Audited Media, which audits publications.
National Geographic, which may be simply acknowledged on newsstands for the yellow border on its cowl, has continued to report on pure wonders and archaeological finds from locations everywhere in the world, akin to a gathering spot for elephants close to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the ruins of Machu Picchu, the Inca metropolis found in Peru in 1911.
The journal, which was based in 1888, grew over the a long time from a single journal to a multipronged media outlet with an version of the journal for youngsters, a TV channel, podcasts, documentary collection and worldwide expeditions.
Source: www.nytimes.com