Introduction
The National Geographic Travelers is a magazine published by the National Geographic Society that enjoys free shipping in the USA. Usually, a magazine has five functional areas namely the administration, editorial, advertising, production and circulation. This paper analyzes the National Geographic Magazine Traveler business model in light of these five areas of practice.
Functional areas
In administration, the title ownership of the publication is independent even though it is part of a large group of publications by the National Geographic Society. The other related publication and electronic media by the same publisher include the National Geographic Kids, National Geographic Adventure and the National Expedition.
The editorial part of this magazine reflects its mission statement which is ‘’to increase and diffuse knowledge while promoting conservation of the world’s cultural, historical and natural resources’’ (National Geographic Society 2). The magazine articles inspire people to care about plants, animals, geographic locations, cultures, science and technology (Loma Linda University 1).
With the mandate of increasing and diffusing geographic knowledge, each part of the magazine seeks to accomplish that. The magazine has a very wide circulation and with monthly publications it is able to disseminate this information regularly. Travel and Culture section editors pick different places one can travel and highlight the location.
They also provide tips needed when going to particular places and the top things to see. In addition, they give themed travels, for example, fall themed trips as well as cultural themed travel and tours. Photography section brings the places to the reader and it also has a section for photo contests where readers subscribe to win prices.
This encourages people to travel more and conserve the beauty of the environment so that in many years to come the generations after them will enjoy the same. There are also photography seminars that offer advice on the whole scope of photography and this fulfils part of the mission statement “to increase knowledge”.
Geographical locations featured in the magazine provide new information to the reader and the explorers’ chronicles provide the details needed to entertain and educate. The animals section mainly has features of wild animals and this makes it informative as readers learn how they affect the planet.
There is also information on conservation of the endangered species; for example, there is a feature on the Virunga Gorillas that are decreasing rapidly in the DRC Congo forests. With the ongoing war, many have been poached leaving just a few (Waitt Foundation 2).
The magazine is sold at a price of $15 for a yearly subscription and $71 for copies at the newsstand. Delivery is within the USA and Canada for C$ 24. However, the online magazine is free and is accessible on the National Geographic website which has over 6 million subscribers.
The online version has over 16.5 million visitors per page and 4.2 million video views. The production function of the magazine shows that the paper size is 8″ x 10 ½’’ and employs a perfect binding method. The cover has a yellow rectangle which runs at the edges of the cover and this serves as the logo for television productions.
There are various advertising opportunities in the National Geographic Travelers’ Magazine. The mission of the magazine is to empower the readers by educating, delivering award winning contents by use of state of the art communication equipment in an entertaining format.
The magazine also runs an online website that attracts over 16 million visitors every month. The website offers consumers with various contents including news, photos, documentaries, and maps. The website has several section s that attract different visitors who may want to view the Travel & Cultures, Science & Space, or the kids sections. The magazine has the following statistics based on viewers (visitors) and pages views. As indicated by Omniture (1);
- 16.5 Million Global visitors.
- 6.5 Million in the US only.
- 231 Million visits on the website’s pages.
- 11.2 Pages average per individual visit.
- 11.2 Average Minutes per individual visit.
- 4.2 Million global video views.
Works Cited
Loma, Linda University. National Geographic magazine features Adventist Health Study. California: Lorna Linda University press, 2005. Print.
National Geographic Society. National Geographic Travelers magazine. Web.
Omniture. “Advertise With Us.” National Geographic Travelers’ Magazine. Web.
Waitt Foundation. Exploration and discovery. 2011. Web.