National Geographic Lays Off Writers; Disney-Owned Title Will Survive On Freelancers

Lynette Rice
·2 min read

The famed National Geographic magazine has become the latest victim of those painful Disney cuts: several writers of the already picked-over publication were laid off Wednesday.

Roughly 19 editorial staffers were notified in April that the job cuts were coming, reported The Washington Post. The newspaper went on to report that freelancers will end up picking up the slack at the magazine, which is still the most read periodical in America.

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This is the fourth round of layoffs since ownership of the title changed in 2015. Disney took over in 2019 after the Fox deal; the National Geographic Society remains a minority partner.

A spokesman insisted to Deadline that editors as well as some writers still remain on staff.

“National Geographic will continue to publish a monthly magazine that is dedicated to exceptional multi-platform storytelling with cultural impact,” according to a company statement. “Staffing changes will not change our ability to do this work, but rather give us more flexibility to tell different stories and meet our audiences where they are across our many platforms. Any insinuation that the recent changes will negatively impact the magazine, or the quality of our storytelling, is simply incorrect.”

Several writers announced their sad departure via Twitter.

National Geographic was created in 1888 and began including pictures in 1905. It reached 1 million subscribers by the 1930s.

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