A conversation with the Editor in Chief of National Geographic Adventure magazineJR: I was a young city magazine editor back in the late ’70s, enamored of the New Journalism and magazines like Rolling Stone and New York, but I loved the kinds of adventure and environmental stories that writers like Tim Cahill, Ed Abbey, and Randy Wayne White were doing. They would put themselves in amazing situations — exploring for lost cities in the Andes, marooning themselves on desert islands, things like that — and then write incredible narratives that were full of humor and heart and great storytelling. And their stories always had an underlying conscience and soul. To me, Cahill felt like an older brother who would take you along with him and show you the ropes…but also screwed up a fair amount. As a writer he was heroic but very approachable. These were modern voices creating a new kind of adventure genre.
When did you join National Geographic Adventure, and what were your goals when you took over as editor in chief?
I came on to launch the magazine in 1999. I wanted to bring that kind of modern spirit and approachability to a National Geographic publication, but also adhere to the unrivaled standards and values of the Society. And, of course, to be connected to all the great work that was and is being done there. National Geographic has always been about groundbreaking exploration and deep research, and of course great photography, but its storytelling hadn’t changed over the years. Today writers are expected to have a voice and personality and point of view. National Geographic has done a great job of reinventing itself over the last few years. They are still THE magazine of record in our world, but they are also more relevant than ever. We have more freedom to be quirky and focused and personal.
How has the world of adventure changed in the years you’ve been at the magazine, and how has the role of adventure in people’s lives changed?
I think the whole notion of “armchair adventure” — the idea of reading about places you will never get to visit — has gone by the boards, or at least changed very dramatically. People are much more willing and able to go out and explore the world for themselves. You can go virtually anywhere in the world, and there are fantastic guides and infrastructure to help you do it. Twenty-five years ago, if you wanted to explore the Antarctic peninsula by sea kayak, you literally had to mount an expedition yourself. Now you can sign up and do it with an outfitter in Berkeley.
How has the magazine changed in those years?
In the ten years Adventure has been around, I think we have completed the transition, as one futurist put it, from the “age of exploration” to the “age of conservation”. Ten years or so ago, back in the days just prior to “Into Thin Air,” a lot of the focus of adventure was about personal accomplishment — can I get to the top of Everest, and back down, alive? I think Jon Krakauer’s book put that egocentric attitude in its proper, somewhat empty, perspective. And the world has changed. All our stories now have a conservation and sustainability angle, without exception. They are still great stories, and they are not overwhelmed by finger-wagging and gloom and doom, but you will not finish a story in Adventure, whether it’s about Easter Island or the rhinos of Namibia, without knowing the issues and what’s at stake.
What do you see as the principal challenges of adventure travel now?
Until recently I’ve been a bit sanguine that as places like Easter Island and Angkor Wat become heavily touristed, new frontiers open up elsewhere. But realistcally, places like that are an incredibly scarce resource. And we’re about to see a tidal wave of global tourism, as hundreds of millions of middle-class Asians really get out and explore the world — as they have every right and reason to do. And, to coin a phrase, globalization is sweeping the planet, and everywhere you turn the last wild places are being logged, farmed, and developed. People have been saying this forever, and will likely keep saying it forever, but from the point of view of the individual, you should really see the wildest parts of the world now, not later.
And what are the principal challenges of creating the magazine — and content shoot-offs such as its web site — in 2008?
Adventure is a high quality, expensive magazine to produce, and getting to the places we need to go to write and photograph our stories will always be an expensive proposition. We need a fairly big audience and substantial revenues to do that, and for many magazines these days, ad revenue has been migrating to the web. We’re lucky to be getting our share of that. And also very fortunate that we have a format and content and relationship with our readers that works best in print. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing like sitting down with a magazine you love and experiencing that world in words and beautiful pictures on nice paper. We love the web and are doing some great things on it, such as our Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth database, that are unbelievably well suited to the web. You click on your destinations, activities, price points, and things like “spirit of adventure”, and our tool comes back with the best companies for you, as rated by our editors. It’s deep and current and fair and very valuable to the users and the companies themselves, and something you could never do economically in print.
As an editor, what are you proudest of?
I honestly think we’ve discovered a few writers who might not have broken through otherwise, and put them together with topics that might not have been covered, and they’ve come up with unique, compelling, memorable pieces that millions of readers have enjoyed and been inspired by. We kind of operate out on the fringes of mainstream media, which at times can be a bit frustrating; I don’t think you’ve seen the name “Obama” more than a couple of times in our pages, if that. On the other hand, we are not dealing with commodity news, sports, or business news that will be covered anyway, one way or another, by somebody — and covered very well. Adventure can really be a content creator in the full sense of the word. It sounds a little crazy to say this, but in some small way the world would be a slightly different, less rich place if we weren’t around, and hadn’t inspired and changed people along the way.
Where do you see the magazine going; how will it change and adapt in the next few years?
We’ll continue to try to focus on doing the right things in print, and the right things on the web. That’s always going to be a work in progress. But now that we’ve been around for a while and established our content niche and our business, I think we can take a few more risks, think a little bigger, and expand the definition of what adventure is for people. A great adventure changes you, teaches you about yourself and the world. How you’ll handle challenges, adversity, new situations. There’s no doubt about it. My daughter, a suburban New York 15-year old, just got back from two weeks backpacking and climbing in the Rockies. One night her group got up at midnight to climb a 14,000 footer. Several of the kids turned back with injuries or altitude-related things, but she did great and made it to the top. She tested herself, and was proud of herself and amazed at the world out there, in a way she couldn’t have done otherwise. Of course, there are a lot of enriching experiences in life beyond having great adventures, but having them is one of the great things in life, for sure.
How about yourself as an adventurer: How have your activities and goals changed in the past decade?
I’ve stuck a bit closer to home, I guess, as my life has changed. And when I get to visit new adventure destinations it tends to be connected to work. But I really enjoy the little things that are still adventurous in their way. When I go out in the mornings for a bike ride on the North County Trail near my home here in Westchester County, NY, there’s something thrilling about it every day.
Which of your own trips has had the biggest influence on your life, and how and why?
That’s a hard one, but a trip to Bhutan in 1987 might be it. Bhutan is a small, spectacular, isolated, beautiful but poor Himalayan country, and when I was there it was just starting to enter the modern world. There were monks and old ornate monasteries everywhere, and wild-looking tribal people, and fantastic, elaborate archery contests. And the mountains were virtually empty and unspoiled, and the trekking was phenomenal. But what gave it extra resonance and perspective for me was traveling through Calcutta to get there. Calcutta was seething with people and motion and a kind of desperate energy that came from its poverty. I found it really compelling. Calcutta and Bhutan were two sides of the coin of human survival and determination, and I’ll never forget it.
What’s the juice for you, now, of editing National Geographic Adventure?
The thing about adventure, small a, is that it’s a powerful and surprising factor in people’s lives. By definition, an adventure is something new, challenging, and surprising, and sometimes it’s life and death. Surviving a shipwreck, like Robinson Crusoe, is an adventure — but so is surviving cancer. You learn things about yourself and other people and life itself when you’re having a real adventure — lessons that you don’t learn otherwise. And what people learn about themselves — how to focus, the importance of relationships in a crisis — is absolutely applicable in other situations. I love it when I see my young editors realize, hey, the stories we’re telling here are metaphors for life — this is a great canvas we’re working on.
What would you like your legacy to be?
Personally, temperamentally, I’m not the most naturally adventurous person out there. Editors by definition are always tinkering, reconsidering, second-guessing everything in front of them. That’s our job. So I’m a coach, not an athlete. I’d like to be known as the guy who pulled all these great stories and story-tellers together and helped them see the bigger, richer picture in what they were doing and writing about, and helped them share those things with lots and lots of readers. And I’d hope that all of us would come away a little better for it.
Filed under: News and notes | Tagged: adventure collection, don george, john rasmus
