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National Geographic
Studio : National Geographic Society
by National Geographic Society
Release Date : 2001-11-23
Publisher : National Geographic Society
Availability : Usually ships in 1 to 3 months and eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
Number of Issues : 12
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 80 reviews)
List Price : $47.40
Our Price : $34.00
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Product Description |
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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, the flagship magazine of the National Geographic Society, chronicles exploration and adventure, as well as changes that impact life on Earth. Editorial coverage encompasses people and places of the world, with an emphasis on human involvement in a changing universe. Major topics include culture, nature, geography, ecology, science and technology. |
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Still The Gold Standard |
I have loved National Geographic since my uncle (a teacher) thought is would make a good birthday gift when I was younger. He started me on a lifetime of finding magazines like National Geographic.
Though I have other magazines, National Geographic remains my favorite and the standard of magazines. Though it has changed somewhat through the years, the one thing that always remains is the imagery.
The photographs range from breathtaking, inspirational, educational and heartbreaking and are often more than that. The efforts photographers undertake are incredible. (The special issue of 100 Best Photographs is amazing) and seeing the images in print is the best way to see these. Though you may see the images on the web, they are not quite the same.
Dinosaurs, space, astronomy, history and so much more. Special and worth having as you will find yourself going back to revisit stories and riveting images. |
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Having a Problem Changing Billing Address |
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I ordered this magazine for my son on 6/22/08. He has yet to receive his first issue and now has a new address. I'm having a terrible time trying to correct the shipping address. |
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Unable to review, has not been recieved yet, was ordered on June 30th, 08 |
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This magazine was ordered on June 30th, my Son has not recieved it yet???????? So can not comment on a review at this time. |
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Rising price, declining content |
It can't be argued that National Geographic still features excellent photography of a wide variety of subjects, but the written content of this famous publication has declined to the point of self-parody. NG still commissions a few notable journalists (Alma Guillermoprieto's contributions are invariably excellent), but contributions by the likes of Frank Viviano, William Allard, etc. are characterized by a thoroughly unprofessional (and distinctly American) tendency to express their personal opinions and experiences in their articles, which are typically distinguished by the most nauseatingly saccharine, humanist perspectives. If you're looking for journalistic objectivity, you'll only find it sporadically here, and mostly in articles pertaining to the fundamental sciences or their relation to technology.
Some of the topics that NG explored in 2006 were incredibly mundane. These included extensive cover stories concerning a scientific examination of the nature of love and (I swear to god this is true) the worldwide appeal of soccer. In the latter issue, one of the maps that we readers usually expect was substituted by a fold-out poster featuring photos and drawings of soccer players and fields, and percentage rates indicating the game's popularity in different continents. If you think that I'm lying, check out the June 2006 issue and witness this inanity for yourself. Again: these were cover stories, not articles buried somewhere in their respective issues. The relative lack of variety in the magazine's subject matter is also discouraging. I don't mind NG's preoccupation with environmental topics; while it's colored with a variety of pessimistic fatalism that's obviously tailored to appeal to moderate leftists with an interest in these subjects, these issues are quite important and worthy of discussion in this magazine. But in the course of one year, I was treated to no fewer than three articles on the topic of evolution, none of which conveyed anything that I (a layman on the topic) didn't know or any conclusions whatsoever: puff pieces, essentially. And of course, the season kicked off with an article on the Grand Canyon. Beautifully shot and hastily written, and I know what the Grand Canyon looks like. I know all about it. In my relatively short (shy of three decades) life, I've read no fewer than six National Geographic articles on the Grand Canyon. Thanks so much for yet another, but I already know about the Grand Canyon; this article didn't tell or show me anything that I didn't know about it, for god's sake. The ZipUSA feature is aimless and uninteresting, mostly an exhibit for how commonplace most of the USA is. I don't know if anybody else has noticed this, but it seems as though the correspondence featured in the magazine's letters section is often cherry-picked for the most vapid and (appropriately) leftist commentary of its reader base.
The thing is, I still can't dismiss NG. For every lousy article in an issue, there's one that fascinates: a photographed review of present-day Chernobyl, Prince Charles' conservationist efforts in Cornwall, unearthed Peruvian mummies, and so on. But nothing here is worth the absurd cost of an annual subscription, especially considering that there's a lot of advertising in every issue. If NG wants advice, here it is: trim the fat. Dump some of your ads and all of your trite articles (about half of the content in any given issue). Either halve the length of your issues or move to a bimonthly format, restore the detailed maps that your customers want, and for god's sake, lower the price. My grandmother had a traditional devotion to this now-bloated magazine, but its higher standard of quality justified her custom back then. There's no reason why I can't just drive or walk to my local library and check out the latest issue at no cost. |
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Why pay more? |
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This is a great magazine; however, unless I am missing something, the cost of a year's subscription is only $15 on the National Geographic site. |
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