National Geographic changes its character

National Geographic after 125 years of existence has decided to change its character from not-for-profit enterprise to a profit making enterprise.

The first National Geographic Magazine was published in 1988. Today it has a reach of 700 million people via magazine, TV, online. Now the National Geographic Society has decided to sell 73% of its stake to 20th Century Fox owned by Rupert Murdoch. The deal is valued at $725 million US dollars for the 73% stake.

The new entity called National Geographic Partners will have equal representation in the board by 20th Century Fox and National Geographic Society. I am wondering whether the new entity will fund projects the way they used to do earlier instead of looking for profits from that assignment.

Renowned wildlife photographer Michael "Nick" Nichols of National Geographic says "Me and my colleagues are shaken by this. What does it mean? When this is added to the immense change in the media landscape over the last ten years, it feels like the last straw in a long series of declines for photographers like myself who came out of publishing in print and got paid do it." He is currently shooting his last assignment for National Geographic. He says "This is not a farewell, but it is a break. maybe just to breathe and see where we are going".

What do you all think?

Sabyasachi

Well we used to subscribe to the magazine for almost 5 years from 1999. In those days amongst others they used to send a fleece jacket as a gift and people used to wear it with pride. The last few months my mailbox was getting bombarded with an Exclusive offer from National geographic magazine which was supposed to be for a select few... the offer was the same fleece jacket and Im sure they are using some bulk mail marketing Co to send these mails...maybe it is not a big deal, maybe the revenue models have already changed over the years and along with it the priorities, but the interesting part will be the magazine's future stand on brazen issues like climate change. As to the people there I guess it has already started

https://nppa.org/news/significant-la...aphic-magazine

Rgds
Roopak

Really felt sad to hear that even a celebrated photographer like Michael "Nick" Nichols who had announced that he will leave in January was given the pink slip. I am not very hopeful about the neutrality of NGC any more as now everything will be driven by money or the perception about revenue generating potential of a story.

I used to fly every month for my office trips and had made a habit of buying the National Geographic magazine from the airport. That is the reason for not subscribing. But I do get those mailers saying that I am the "chosen one" for fleece jacket. :D

All our life we have been looking for heroes. With heroes self-destructing, I guess each one of us have to bring that hero hidden deep within himself and herself. Else I don't see much hope.