ITV

Tag: National Geographic Magazine

  • Nat Geo magazine appoints Susan Goldberg as first female editor in chief

    Nat Geo magazine appoints Susan Goldberg as first female editor in chief

     National Geographic Magazine appoints Ms. Susan Goldberg as the Editor-in-Chief. The first female to hold that position, Susan is also the 10th editor-in chief in the 126-year history of this iconic magazine. In India, National Geographic Magazine is published by Amar Chitra Katha under the license of National Geographic Society.

    “Susan has an incredible drive and vision, which makes her a wonderful choice to lead the magazine and daily news through their next iterations,” says Chris Johns, who will now serve the company in the newly created role of chief content officer.

     

    Susan joined NatGeo in January as an executive editor of news and features. Prior to this she was the editor for Bloomberg News in Washington, as well as the top editor of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the San Jose Mercury News.

     

    “I am privileged to take this new role, and excited about exploring new avenues,” said Ms Susan Goldberg. “It’s an honor to be part of such a great publication and to work with its talented and dedicated team”, she further added.

     

    Commenting on her appointment, National Geographic Magazines India editor in chief Niloufer Venkatraman said: “It will be wonderful to work with Susan. We will discuss and publish more stories that have special relevance to Indian readers”.

  • Amar Chitra Katha appoints Sanjay Dhar as president – corporate solutions group

    Amar Chitra Katha appoints Sanjay Dhar as president – corporate solutions group

    MUMBAI: Amar Chitra Katha has appointed Sanjay Dhar as president, corporate solutions group. Dhar will be driving the new ‘value added brand solutions’ initiatives at Amar Chitra Katha which will combine the formidable creative resources, content capabilities and existing media properties like Amar Chitra Katha, Tinkle, National Geographic Magazine and National Geographic Traveller India, using all media verticals which includes print, digital, TV, and on-ground activation.

     

    Amar Chitra Katha CEO – publishing Manas Mohan said, “I am delighted at the appointment of Sanjay. Over the years, he has contributed immensely to the industry and I am confident that his holistic business acumen, network and strategic thinking will continue to be of immense value.”

     

    Prior to joining Amar Chitra Katha, Dhar was the business head – production and sales with Sunshine Pictures. He has two decades of experience spanning ad sales, programming, content production, operations and business development across verticals – TV, digital, films, OOH and events. Dhar has worked with leading media companies like Nimbus, UTV, B4U and Turner International for leading brands like HBO, CNN, Cartoon Network and Pogo. He has also had a successful stint as an entrepreneur in the broadcast and media sales business.

     

    “It gives me great pleasure to accept this assignment. I am excited to work with Amar Chitra Katha and its iconic brands. I look forward to joining the superb team and in taking this venture to new heights,” concluded Dhar.

  • ACK plans to paint the town yellow on Nat Geo’s 125 years

    ACK plans to paint the town yellow on Nat Geo’s 125 years

    MUMBAI: Come October, and ACK Media will leave no stone unturned to celebrate the 125 years completion of National geographic magazine. Get ready to see the city vendors don the yellow colour of National Geographic with the umbrellas distributed amongst vendors. This isn’t all, the media house which has planned a host of activities to celebrate this landmark achievement, had earlier conducted a photography workshop along with an exhibition.

     

    The main marketing campaign of ACK Media will be featured on the digital space. “Our online activation is massive where we will see a lot of communication about what National Geographic magazine gives to its customers. As of today, e-readers are evolving more and more. If we sell 90,000 copies to our readers, there are another 100,000 people reading content online. These readers are extremely important to us because that is where the action is. Considering our activity on social media, we are the second largest branded page globally with more than 14 million hits which is very important for National Geographic as a brand and also for us, we being their partners in India,” says the ACK Media COO and publishing director Manas Mohan.

    Readers on the online space are extremely important to us because that is where the action is says Manas Mohan

     

    The media house’s association with the magazine goes back 18 years for which it has been its license holder. “We have been selling the ad space locally for the magazine and also distributing it in a much larger way across India, thereby growing the subscription base. Unlike other magazines in India, National Geographic (the mother brand) is a subscription oriented magazine. So more than 50 per cent of our 90,000 circulation base is subscriptions and this is very unique for a magazine in India. There are very few magazines who concentrate on subscriptions in India. Over here, our primary focus is to grow the subscription for National Geographic magazine,” informs Mohan.

     

    The publishers aren’t just proud of the numbers of copies they sell (subscription and retail) but also boast about the fact that they have managed to get Indian brands to advertise in the magazine. “From the past couple of months, we have been able to offer the magazine advertising sales by Indian brands. The first time we brought in 19 pages of advertisements for the National Geographic magazine and that to at a very high price considering the magazine’s exposure globally and the response has been very warm and welcoming,” proudly claims Mohan who further elaborates by adding that Tata Motors was the first advertiser for the magazine in India.

     

    Talking about the scope of niche magazine in India, the publisher which took over IBH about three years ago feels that in the magazine business, the scope of existence and profit is only for the niche magazine. “I think general interest magazines face a huge competition as they are the biggest in the market. They would also face competition from television and internet. For example, a magazine would come to you once in a week but by that time television would have flashed the same news about 55 times in a span of two days and internet would have published everything to say on that topic in a span of three days,” says Mohan.

     

    He adds, “In term of niche magazines people collect information. Now there are two ways to the term niche – demographic niche and psychographic niche. Demographic niche is something where a person reads something belonging to a profession, while a psychographic niche is where people read out of non-livelihood reasons. So instead of me reading something at the doctor’s clinic which does not interest me, I would prefer reading my own magazine.”

     

    Feeling poignant about the recent shutting down of a few magazines, Mohan says, “Magazines start with a good idea but its survival depends on the way it is carried forward and executed. We have been hearing a lot about the readership of newspapers and magazines scaling down, but in my opinion, I think it is getting more fragmented. It is all about how well you manage your fragment. So if National Geographic Traveler India is the biggest travel magazine in the country, it is because it has done its job very well.”

     

    Maybe he is right when he says that sometimes people have an idea, but it cannot be followed through. So, just as it is said, ‘one per cent aspiration, 99 per cent perspiration’, it holds true for every business.

  • National Geographic offers podcasts

    National Geographic offers podcasts

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster National Geographic now makes it possible for consumers to take a guided walk through the streets of Venice, experience an African safari and hear the week’s top science and nature news, with audio and video podcasts for free download.

    Available at www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts as well as on iTunes and Yahoo!, the first offering of podcasts aims to inspire audiences to care about the planet by tapping into a wide range of newly produced and existing content from National Geographic. Of the 10 National Geographic offerings on the iTunes storefront, eight are in the top 75 downloads for this week.

    Free audio podcasts from National Geographic include:

    – National Geographic News — The week’s top science and nature news, world music features, interviews with innovators, audio quizzes and a “Photos on the Radio” feature

    – Afropop Worldwide — Lively, in-depth reports on the music and culture of Africa and the Americas and their transatlantic connections

    – Traveler Magazine’s ’50 Walks of a Lifetime’– Some of the greatest walking tours, including San Francisco, Tribeca (NY), Paris and Venice, selected by editors of National Geographic Traveler and narrated by radio and television travel authority Rudy Maxa

    – National Geographic World Talk — Interviews with the world’s most compelling scientists, explorers, photographers and thinkers

    – The Best of National Geographic Magazine –The best of 118 years of adventure, cultures and creature features, including the award-winning Sights & Sounds

    – National Geographic Minutes — Minute-long reports on nature and science

    Free video podcasts include:

    – Wild Chronicles — Rare access to unknown places and in-depth reporting from the public television series Wild Chronicles, hosted by Boyd Matson and made possible by National Geographic Mission Programs and Lindblad Expeditions and presented by WLIW New York

    – National Geographic Video Shorts — Videos from National Geographic, including Mysteries of Lost Civilisations, The World’s Most Unusual Foods, Extreme Healing, The World’s Toughest Jobs and spotlights on countries around the world

    – National Geographic Atmosphere — Features video with ambient sound that exposes users to exotic settings and locations

    – National Geographic Spotlight — Featuring one-on-one interviews with superstars from around the globe. From Brazilian crooners to Senegalese superstars, Spotlight lets the musicians speak for themselves.

    National Geographic digital media VP content operations, Betsy Scolnik says, “For more than a century National Geographic has crossed borders in its storytelling. Podcasting is shaping up to be the ultimate tool for crisscrossing the globe, making it easy for everyone — from the armchair traveler to the on-the-go adventurer — to access great stories through video, audio, music and still photos.”