This is truly heart breaking!
I fully agree. I think they blew it when they sold themselves years several years ago. I grew up with years of these on shelves in the attic storeroom and they not only educated but fueled a lot of dreams.
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I haven’t had a subscription for eons and they’ve also just laid off their last staff writer so…attention spans…what were we talking about? 
NG Mag was so influential in my childhood and youth. It showed me the world – both human and natural. It enticed me outdoors, improved my reading and writing, enticed me to study the natural and social sciences, and led me to university. NG taught me to dream big, and to follow my dreams to success. And to this day, I still hold the photography in NG as a gold standard for my own efforts. It was the most influential magazine of my youth.
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Interestingly enough, after having been a subscriber (to the international issue) since 1974, I decided this year not to renew my subscription. It is not the magazine it used to be. So I guess I’m a bit prescient after all.
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Well, what can I say. I used to read the magazine in the library, bought an individual issue once in a while and then had a subscription for years, the international issue first and for the Dutch one later. Decided to drop the subscription because I was disappointed by the content too often, had the intention to start reading again in the library but that appeared to be a rare occasion. Signs of what was to come? Nevertheless I feel a bit shocked by this news. Sad.
I am a current subscriber, have been for years. National Geographic has fueled by quest for knowledge of our world for decades. Train journeys, plane journeys and dentists waiting rooms will never be the same if it goes.
This feels like the beginning of the end of a great institution
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I used to subscribe to it but I haven’t in some years now though I still digitally browse through the magazine online through my local library.
National Geographic is the biggest reason I got into photography in the first place. I clearly remember flipping through the magazine in the late 1990’s and thinking to myself that I’d like to learn to take better pictures like the ones I was seeing in the magazine. I had just started working full time and I was still living at home so money wasn’t a problem I though what the heck and went out and bought my first SLR - the Canon Rebel G. 
I’ve been a subscriber for about 10 years now. There was never any official announcement from them directly, and it seems they are moving to a model of hiring freelance writers exclusively. I don’t find that all that surprising and to me it seems like most of the stories and photography wasn’t coming from staff writers.
In other words, I don’t think it’s going anywhere.
Sad. I thought it would be one of the last magazines on the news stand. I inherited my father-in-law’s 55 year collection dating back to the 1930’s. I thought a library or school might have been interested, but I couldn’t find anyone. I kept a few issues and disposed of the rest after the entire collection became available digitally for a relatively low cost. I’m not sure what I will read now at the dentist’s office!
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We’ve subscribed for about 40 years, and we both read it from childhood. We’ve been giving back issues to our now-7-year-old granddaughter, who loves to read and is very educated about the world around her. She now has her first camera and delights in making pictures, but drawing is more her thing. Great to see a kid who appreciates tactility in this digital age!
It’s a sad demise. It’s difficult to quantify how much it influenced my interest in photography, but I’m sure it is hugely – along with "Life"magazine.
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It is only natural that now at 55, things that were part of my youth start disappearing more and more. I get the feeling that in these times this process is only accelerating. The way media including photographs are “consumed” has changed and will continue to do so. I think a photo is not finished before it is printed. Generations to come will generally not experience that, which I think is their loss.
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