Venerable National Geographic has passed control of its media assets (magazine, cable channels, etc) to a group controlled by Fox, run by James Murdoch, youngest son of Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. From the National Geographic press release:
The National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox announced on Wednesday that they are expanding their partnership in a venture that will include National Geographic’s cable channels, its 127-year-old magazine, digital and social platforms, maps, travel, and other media.
Under the $725-million deal, Fox, which currently holds a majority stake in National Geographic’s cable channels, will own 73 percent of the new media company, called National Geographic Partners. The National Geographic Society will own 27 percent.
Officials at National Geographic and Fox said the deal will bring greater financial stability to the Society’s media products and its scientific research arm, which have operated as a non-profit since National Geographic’s founding in 1888.
While the magazine is the iconic face of the Society, especially for us old timers who remember the stacks and stacks of yellow mags, I suspect NG’s real worth lies in the research arm; the magazine existed as an important funding tool, both directly and indirectly. However, as The Washington Post notes (and in a very interesting way),
The agreement provides a financial lifeline not just for the much-honored magazine, but also for the National Geographic Society itself, the organization’s chief executive acknowledged Wednesday. Like many print publications, National Geographic has been hurt by the onset of the digital era, which has put it on a slow trajectory toward extinction.
The magazine’s domestic circulation peaked at about 12 million copies in the late 1980s; today, the publication reaches about 3.5 million subscribers in the United States and an additional 3 million subscribers abroad through non-English-language editions. Advertising has been in steady decline.
“It has become apparent that ensuring the future of the society would require something bold,” the society’s chief executive, Gary Knell, said at an all-staff meeting Wednesday. Continuing as a media organization and potentially absorbing future losses, he said, “presented enormous and real existential risks. We . . . truly believe the path we’ve chosen presents the greatest potential upside.”
It’s interesting that one print publication would be predicting the demise of another. Can we be so sure of the loss of a magazine of such unique interest and quality?
In any case, I wish the partnership well. National Geographic magazine was certainly one of my motivators in where my life has led, motivating that sense of wonder and interest in various fields of science, especially the bizarre ways of life led by others – and how ours must look to them.
Senor Unoball @ The Daily Kos coughs up a hairball on the news.
