Friday 30th June: NatGeo lays off last staff writers

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Magazines laying off writers to cut costs is hardly a new story. But what is particularly depressing about this news is that this is happening at one of the most read magazines in the U.S. If you can’t make the economics work with 1.2 million subscribers, either something is very wrong with your model, or print truly is doomed.

Print copies will no longer be sold on newsstands, articles will now be contracted out to freelancers or - I quote - “pieced together by editors”, and the small audio department has been shuttered. Even photography contracts, which allowed professionals to spend months capturing the iconic images NatGeo is famous for, have been heavily curtailed.

It’s hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel for the print title. Cutting content budgets never works as more than a short term measure in publishing, and this is one title that will especially hurt from the loss of deep, long-form reporting.

There’s no clear cut definition of what counts as a digital magazine these days, given the wide variety of formats and delivery methods. For FIPP, Jim Bilton breaks down changes in the digital magazine market, what is driving consumer behaviour, and regional spending trends.

There are an awful lot of ‘what if’s’ here but its interesting to note that some publishers are pushing for Apple to be explicitly named in the UK’s upcoming Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill. Apple already does advertising revenue share for publishers in its News product, and has various subscription and direct payment arrangements in place for publishing partners of its premium Apple News+ tier, so will organisations really risk jeopardising those relationships?

A fun list to finish Friday with! Toolkits have put together a ranking of the top English-language publisher brands, ranked by the total number of paying subscribers with digital access to their subscription products. As always with these types of rankings, it’s striking the difference between the top few players, and everyone else.

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