Democracy Dies in Darkness
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National Geographic lays off its last remaining staff writers

The magazine, which remains among the most read in the U.S., has struggled in the digital era to command the kind of resources that fueled the deep reporting it became known for

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June 28, 2023 at 5:03 p.m. EDT
A bookstore owner in Islamabad shows off a copy of one of National Geographic's most famous covers, featuring Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula in 1984. (B.K. Bangash/AP)
4 min

Like one of the endangered species whose impending extinction it has chronicled, National Geographic magazine has been on a relentlessly downward path, struggling for vibrancy in an increasingly unforgiving ecosystem.

On Wednesday, the Washington-based magazine that has surveyed science and the natural world for 135 years reached another difficult passage when it laid off all of its last remaining staff writers.