We've fired all our writers and the magazine is no longer going to appear in print, but aside from those minor details, the magazine is better than ever.
“Any insinuation that the recent changes will negatively impact the magazine, or the quality of our storytelling, is simply incorrect.”
We've fired all our writers and the magazine is no longer going to appear in print, but aside from those minor details, the magazine is better than ever.
Not only is print media now basically dead - so is long form content. Left is only the really big players - the New Yorker / New York Times / Washington post. But even they are a pale shadow of...
Not only is print media now basically dead - so is long form content.
Left is only the really big players - the New Yorker / New York Times / Washington post. But even they are a pale shadow of what they used to be.
I loved reading all the long form articles published in many magazines and local print publications in my country - since around 2005 or so they’ve all closed down one by one. All we have left is TikTok, Twitter, and memes.
It feels like we’re entering a dark age in terms of journalism and the coverage of current events.
Have you looked at The Atlantic and ProPublica? Both have some pretty long investigative journalism pieces. Also sites like https://longreads.com can be good to find new stuff
Have you looked at The Atlantic and ProPublica? Both have some pretty long investigative journalism pieces. Also sites like https://longreads.com can be good to find new stuff
I think that narrowing of the market was inevitable. News and magazines are being squeezed from two ends. On the one end, ad revenues are down. On the other end, doing good journalism is probably...
I think that narrowing of the market was inevitable. News and magazines are being squeezed from two ends.
On the one end, ad revenues are down.
On the other end, doing good journalism is probably still expensive. The contemporary world is many times more complex: current events are more complex. Print papers are outmoded, and reaching digital audiences in compelling ways is all-important. But hiring top-tier designers, developers, and PMs is expensive.
I honestly don't think those things were ever not expensive. I think the bigger issue is consumers change as well as it being easier to deliver content piecemeal. Rather than having to send all...
I honestly don't think those things were ever not expensive.
I think the bigger issue is consumers change as well as it being easier to deliver content piecemeal. Rather than having to send all content to everyone e.g. a newspaper, you can send one article to one browser.
Unsurprisingly this has lead to most people consuming short news, and few reading the longer articles. That's how it always was, most read the front page and a few read the long articles inside.
It doesn't help that for the last 40 years the GOP has been working diligently to dismantle public education. Or that the hyper-feminist focused social warriors on the other side have worked so...
It doesn't help that for the last 40 years the GOP has been working diligently to dismantle public education. Or that the hyper-feminist focused social warriors on the other side have worked so hard to focus the remaining educators on girls to the utter detriment of boys.
I know so many people that just don't read at all. It's sad. Reading was my refuge as a kid.
I don't think it's just the GOP, the same thing is happening in Finland. We also have a secondary problem of the countryside becoming de-populated, and mainly by women moving to cities to get a...
I don't think it's just the GOP, the same thing is happening in Finland.
We also have a secondary problem of the countryside becoming de-populated, and mainly by women moving to cities to get a higher education and the men staying behind to take over the family farm / business and staying uneducated.
This leads to the men staying behind being unatractive partners to the women who now have a higher education.
It's a very sad situation that is very problematic.
I know so many people that just don't read at all. It's sad. Reading was my refuge as a kid.
I'd venture there's more long form articles available to you than ever before, just not in print, and finding the good articles and vetting them has become harder. These were the services...
I'd venture there's more long form articles available to you than ever before, just not in print, and finding the good articles and vetting them has become harder. These were the services magazines provided.
And there's a subclass of articles where people need to travel or have other expenses, where it's actively dangerous to investigate, where you need access to people that is very limited, that I would categorize as classic core longform journalism, that were facilitated and financed by (some) magazines that probably have a hard time getting made now. But they were so rare even before.
This is where a good news aggregator is really valuable. Taking Tildes as one example, I really appreciate finding new writers or websites from the posts here.
I'd venture there's more long form articles available to you than ever before, just not in print, and finding the good articles and vetting them has become harder.
This is where a good news aggregator is really valuable. Taking Tildes as one example, I really appreciate finding new writers or websites from the posts here.
There used to be a longform paper insert published weekly in the second largest newspaper in my country called Volt. This contained awesome photography and one weekly longform article made...
But they were so rare even before.
There used to be a longform paper insert published weekly in the second largest newspaper in my country called Volt. This contained awesome photography and one weekly longform article made somewhere internationally, and a bunch covering local issues. They shut that down. This newspaper had a circulation like 500 000 or so - Tiny! Yet they had the revenue for it.
Longform journalism really wasn't rare, and it even existed in places where now it is not at all possible.
From the Guardian article that is quoting the Washington post. I didn’t realise that it’s was going out of print as well. Feels like the end of an iconic physical magazine.
From the Guardian article that is quoting the Washington post.
National Geographic has reportedly laid off its last staff writers and will no longer be sold on US newsstands.
I didn’t realise that it’s was going out of print as well. Feels like the end of an iconic physical magazine.
Nineteen editorial staffers were affected by the layoffs, the Washington Post reported, and several staffers confirmed the news on Twitter.
The organization’s future editorial work will instead be done by freelance writers and the few editors remaining on staff, the Post reported.
Yeah I would have thought that it's a piece the owning company keeps around even at a loss if need be because of the brand recognition as an ad for you as a whole company. Feels weird.
Yeah I would have thought that it's a piece the owning company keeps around even at a loss if need be because of the brand recognition as an ad for you as a whole company. Feels weird.
No longer sold at US newsstands =/= going out of print? Presumably it will be still be delivered to it's 1.8 million domestic subscribers (and more internationally)?
No longer sold at US newsstands =/= going out of print?
This is so sad. I recently started reading the magazine again. I was a bit weary of the bias since it's owned by Disney but the articles were still really informative and the photographs are...
This is so sad. I recently started reading the magazine again. I was a bit weary of the bias since it's owned by Disney but the articles were still really informative and the photographs are great. I can't think of an alternative to natgeo but maybe the writers will start something up.
My wife is a long-time subscriber and she complained about quality going down in recent years. But yeah, I always somehow assumed that they are going to be around forever just be the virtue of...
My wife is a long-time subscriber and she complained about quality going down in recent years. But yeah, I always somehow assumed that they are going to be around forever just be the virtue of always being there.
That's incredibly sad. I haven't kept up with it in over 10 years, and as @mordae said, the quality probably went downhill fast, but I used to love them as a kid. I'd go to the school library to...
That's incredibly sad. I haven't kept up with it in over 10 years, and as @mordae said, the quality probably went downhill fast, but I used to love them as a kid.
I'd go to the school library to pick up the latest issue to read at home, and it usually was a blast. Good times.
We've fired all our writers and the magazine is no longer going to appear in print, but aside from those minor details, the magazine is better than ever.
Not only is print media now basically dead - so is long form content.
Left is only the really big players - the New Yorker / New York Times / Washington post. But even they are a pale shadow of what they used to be.
I loved reading all the long form articles published in many magazines and local print publications in my country - since around 2005 or so they’ve all closed down one by one. All we have left is TikTok, Twitter, and memes.
It feels like we’re entering a dark age in terms of journalism and the coverage of current events.
Have you looked at The Atlantic and ProPublica? Both have some pretty long investigative journalism pieces. Also sites like https://longreads.com can be good to find new stuff
You can also utilise the tags source.the atlantic, source.propublica and source.longreads to see content posted from these sites to Tildes.
I have, even The Atlantic isn't what it was back in ~2009 :(
I think that narrowing of the market was inevitable. News and magazines are being squeezed from two ends.
On the one end, ad revenues are down.
On the other end, doing good journalism is probably still expensive. The contemporary world is many times more complex: current events are more complex. Print papers are outmoded, and reaching digital audiences in compelling ways is all-important. But hiring top-tier designers, developers, and PMs is expensive.
I honestly don't think those things were ever not expensive.
I think the bigger issue is consumers change as well as it being easier to deliver content piecemeal. Rather than having to send all content to everyone e.g. a newspaper, you can send one article to one browser.
Unsurprisingly this has lead to most people consuming short news, and few reading the longer articles. That's how it always was, most read the front page and a few read the long articles inside.
It doesn't help that for the last 40 years the GOP has been working diligently to dismantle public education. Or that the hyper-feminist focused social warriors on the other side have worked so hard to focus the remaining educators on girls to the utter detriment of boys.
I know so many people that just don't read at all. It's sad. Reading was my refuge as a kid.
I don't think it's just the GOP, the same thing is happening in Finland.
We also have a secondary problem of the countryside becoming de-populated, and mainly by women moving to cities to get a higher education and the men staying behind to take over the family farm / business and staying uneducated.
This leads to the men staying behind being unatractive partners to the women who now have a higher education.
It's a very sad situation that is very problematic.
Reading is my refuge as an adult, heh.
I'd venture there's more long form articles available to you than ever before, just not in print, and finding the good articles and vetting them has become harder. These were the services magazines provided.
And there's a subclass of articles where people need to travel or have other expenses, where it's actively dangerous to investigate, where you need access to people that is very limited, that I would categorize as classic core longform journalism, that were facilitated and financed by (some) magazines that probably have a hard time getting made now. But they were so rare even before.
This is where a good news aggregator is really valuable. Taking Tildes as one example, I really appreciate finding new writers or websites from the posts here.
There used to be a longform paper insert published weekly in the second largest newspaper in my country called Volt. This contained awesome photography and one weekly longform article made somewhere internationally, and a bunch covering local issues. They shut that down. This newspaper had a circulation like 500 000 or so - Tiny! Yet they had the revenue for it.
Longform journalism really wasn't rare, and it even existed in places where now it is not at all possible.
As a fan of long form content, there are quite a few more long read sources than that: https://tildes.net/?tag=long_read
And for anyone curious, the
long readtag is applied to all posts that are 3000 words or more in length.From the Guardian article that is quoting the Washington post.
I didn’t realise that it’s was going out of print as well. Feels like the end of an iconic physical magazine.
The end of an era.
I wasn't into National Geographic, but this still hits me in the feels.
I never bought the magazine or contributed any money to it, but somehow I just presumed it would be around forever.
Yeah I would have thought that it's a piece the owning company keeps around even at a loss if need be because of the brand recognition as an ad for you as a whole company. Feels weird.
No longer sold at US newsstands =/= going out of print?
Presumably it will be still be delivered to it's 1.8 million domestic subscribers (and more internationally)?
Thanks for that, I had missed it. 1.8m does seem like a fair subscriber base to keep going.
This is so sad. I recently started reading the magazine again. I was a bit weary of the bias since it's owned by Disney but the articles were still really informative and the photographs are great. I can't think of an alternative to natgeo but maybe the writers will start something up.
My wife is a long-time subscriber and she complained about quality going down in recent years. But yeah, I always somehow assumed that they are going to be around forever just be the virtue of always being there.
That's incredibly sad. I haven't kept up with it in over 10 years, and as @mordae said, the quality probably went downhill fast, but I used to love them as a kid.
I'd go to the school library to pick up the latest issue to read at home, and it usually was a blast. Good times.
End of an era