National Geographic magazine is truly a trend setter. The beloved and iconic magazine covered
everything there is in nature. After writing and publishing for over 100 years, National
Geographic finally laid off the last few of their remaining writing staff this week.
These past months of 2023, the “employee layoffs” has become a sort of trend in companies-
both big and small. It started with giants like Twitter, Amazon and Disney. Their reasoning and
logic is always something like “couldn’t help it” or “no choice”. Not really thinking about the
employee who lost the job their life depends on.
“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 spokesperson said. “Any insinuation that the recent changes will negatively
impact the magazine, or the quality of our storytelling, is simply incorrect.”
What Now?
The magazine plans to hire freelancers for writing and editing jobs. The fact that the very
iconic yellow-rectangled publication has steeped to this is shocking to many.
The magazine will no longer be available at stores as a physical copy across the United
States. Starting next year, the company aims to apply several cost-cutting tactics to keep
the magazine running.
The Iconic Magazine
- National Geographic surpassed 12 million US subscribers during the height of its popularity in the 1980s.
- National Geographic continues to rank among the most widely read magazines in America at a time when publications are fighting to maintain their position. It allegedly has less than 1.8 million customers at the end of 2022.
- The National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., was founded by 33 professors, scientists, and explorers, including Alexander Graham Bell, who created National Geographic. It developed into a stand-alone in the 1930s.
Staff Reactions
National Geographic laid off the very last of their writing staff. People who have been
working with the magazine for more than a decade.
The Senior Writer for NatGeo tweeted about the latest issue and conveyed his gratefulness
and support to the company as well as his co-workers.
Writer and Editor Nina Strochlic described her time with National Geographic as “the
coolest job I’ll ever have”. Through her tweet, she considers herself lucky to be a part of
the magazine team.
