National Geographic magazine reaches 49 million print and digital readers in 33 languages worldwide.
The August 2019 issue was a special single-topic issue focused on human migration and the plight of refugees around the globe. The English edition featured a cover story chronicling the mass migrations that define our age, as storyteller Paul Salopek traced humankind’s footsteps out of Africa, giving voice on the way to migrants who are part of history’s largest diaspora.
Eight of the international-language editions featured this same story on their covers, while others chose images that reflected movement, including the powerful image of walkers holding belongings as they journey alongside their reflection in water. Seven editions used the story, "The first Europeans weren’t who you might think," and the Turkish edition expanded on it with a piece and a cover on the Neolithic Anatolian farmers.
To mark the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha and the end of the Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the Arabic edition covered the restoration of the Kaaba in Mecca, which relates to the migration theme.
Other local covers were published in the Netherlands, which covered the Sumatran orangutan, and Indonesia, which marked the 125th anniversary of the Bogor zoology museum, a scientific research laboratory. The Polish edition ran the Tokyo feature story from April’s Cities issue, and the Russian edition ran June’s Wildlife Tourism feature story.
See below for a round-up of our covers from across the globe.
