{"id":2023,"date":"2015-09-11T12:11:25","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T17:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=2023"},"modified":"2015-09-11T12:11:25","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T17:11:25","slug":"national-geographic-21st-century-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2015\/09\/11\/national-geographic-21st-century-fox\/","title":{"rendered":"National Geographic + 21st Century Fox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venerable National Geographic<\/strong><\/em> has passed control of its media assets\u00a0 (magazine, cable channels, etc) to a group controlled by Fox, run by James Murdoch, youngest son of Rupert Murdoch of News Corp.\u00a0 From the National Geographic<\/strong><\/em> press release<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox announced on Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0that 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Officials at National Geographic and Fox said the deal will bring greater financial stability to the Society\u2019s media products and its scientific research arm, which have operated as a non-profit since National Geographic\u2019s founding in 1888.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.\u00a0 However, as The Washington Post<\/strong><\/em> notes<\/a> (and in a very interesting way),<\/p>\n

The agreement provides a financial lifeline not just for the much-honored magazine, but also for the National Geographic Society itself, the organization\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The magazine\u2019s domestic circulation peaked at about 12\u00a0million copies in the late 1980s; today, the publication reaches about 3.5\u00a0million subscribers in the United States and an additional 3\u00a0million subscribers abroad through non-English-language editions. Advertising has been in steady decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has become apparent that ensuring the future of the society would require something bold,\u201d the society\u2019s chief executive, Gary Knell, said at an all-staff meeting Wednesday. Continuing as a media organization and potentially absorbing future losses, he said, \u201cpresented enormous and real existential risks. We .\u2009.\u2009. truly believe the path we\u2019ve chosen presents the greatest potential upside.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s interesting that one print publication would be predicting the demise of another.\u00a0 Can we be so sure of the loss of a magazine of such unique interest and quality?<\/p>\n

In any case, I wish the partnership well.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Senor Unoball @ The Daily Kos<\/strong><\/em> coughs up a hairball<\/a> on the news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venerable National Geographic has passed control of its media assets\u00a0 (magazine, cable channels, etc) to a group controlled by Fox, run by James Murdoch, youngest son of Rupert Murdoch of News Corp.\u00a0 From the National Geographic press release: The National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox announced on Wednesday\u00a0that they \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2023"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2028,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023\/revisions\/2028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}