Magda e-mailed me last week and suggested we look at National Geographic as a not-for-profit publisher. I was unsure because we are studying the business of news publishing and that magazine doesn’t really publish news.
There are many other examples of non-profit magazines in Canada and the U.S. such as This Magazine, Walrus, Harper’s, and Mother Jones. Some do discuss current issues, but they all address a specific segment.
I can see how the model of magazine publishing is similar in that the question is how do you fund resource-intensive content (citizen journalists or unpaid bloggers don’t regularly do photographic deep sea diving or go on expeditions up the Amazon).
Many magazines have continued success despite the advent of digital content distribution. It may be because they have a unique niche and can attract a vertical of interest.
There could be a lesson there for news operations. Newspapers created value with their breadth and controlled distribution, but now many newspapers are full of commodified content: wire stories, classifieds, sports scores, horoscopes.
For many newspapers, local content is their unique offering. People I know have noticed a reduction in local stories in the paper where I work.
So it could be worth looking at that, but it is a huge extra chunk.