Yesterday, the Gear Junkie posted a story that speculated that National Geographic Adventure was being shopped around to other publishers following a sharp drop off in advertising during the recent economic downturn. Today, Steve Casimiro, the West Coast Editor for the magazine, is reporting on his website The Adventure Life, that the magazine will cease operations effective immediately, with the current issue, December/January, as the last one to be published.
Steve reports that National Geographic released the following statement:
National Geographic is transitioning its Adventure brand from traditional print to a multi-platform model that will include newsstand editions, books, e-magazines, mobile applications and a robust Web site. National Geographic will also continue to honor the world’s great explorers and adventurers with the National Geographic Adventure Awards. “We’re tremendously proud of what John Rasmus and his team have accomplished over the last 10 years,” NG Publishing President John Q. Griffin said in making the announcement. “They have consistently delivered award-winning editorial to an enthusiastic audience of readers and advertisers. But given the current advertising environment and the opportunities we see in emerging digital platforms, we think the time is right to transition the Adventure brand.” Griffin shared the news at a staff meeting in New York today. A total of 17 staffers in New York and Washington are affected.
While I am sad to hear that the magazine is no longer going to be published, at least not in it's current format, this quote does give me hope that Adventure will continue to live on in new, interesting, and unique formats. I'm glad to gear that Nat. Geo. isn't just dropping the brand altogether, and that we will see it in new formats soon.
Make no mistakse, the publishing world is going through a major transition at the moment, as everyone moves to new media formats and takes advantages of emerging technologies. E-zines are on the rise and as devices such as the Amazon Kindle and the much-rumored Apple Tablet come to light, we're likely to see some amazing new possibilities that offer a lot more than what we get out of traditional magazines at this time. Hopefully we'll see Adventure re-emerge in a similar format, as it seems like a perfect fit for the brand. If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, check out this potential demo for where we could be headed with publishing in the near future that was just released yesterday, in the video below. Pretty eye opening stuff.
17 staff members will be directly affected by these changes at Adventure, some of whom I've had the privilege of getting to know over the past few years. I hope that each of you has a secure future with National Geographic or the re-branded Adventure. And if your path is now taking you elsewhere, I wish you luck in those endeavors too. I'm sure we'll bump into one another further down the road.
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