National Geographic magazine reaches 49 million print and digital readers in 33 languages worldwide.
For the February 2019 issue, the English edition featured climber Alex Honnold’s epic solo ascent of El Capitan on the cover of the magazine. Thailand and Turkey also followed this choice. A two-story package on Silicon Valley and the cost of lithium was featured in most other editions. Nine selected Lithium, using several different imaging choices. Eight other editions highlighted evolving Silicon Valley, most with the shot of the new Apple headquarters.
A story that explores an enigmatic archaeological find in Peru that included child sacrifice was taken up by the Latin American edition and several others, with a stunning image of a skull and headdress. The Arabic edition went with a story about Australia’s Kangaroo Controversy, and the Russian team went with a story about the celebration of Carnaval in its many forms.
Eight editions featured local stories on their covers. China spotlights a team of Chinese researchers studying artifacts in the Bamiyan Caves in Afghanistan, France did a package on California, including a story on the effects of recent wildfires on the state’s famed national parks, and Georgia did a feature about a recent surge in cave tourism and its consequences. Germany explored the tradition of pagan mysticism there and its connection to nature, and Indonesia looked at a Chinatown near the Malaka Straits. Italy adapted a story from the Netherlands about Frans Lanting’s work in Madagascar, Romania a feature on the decline of small-scale village agriculture, and Slovenia did a fantastic story on the excavation of a late Roman cemetery complex in Ljubljana that was later picked up by the U.S. website.
See below for a round-up of our covers from across the globe featuring an array of topics.
