National Geographic, the famous yellow-framed magazine, has laid off its last remaining staff writers and will no longer be sold on US newsstands, according to employees and media reports.
The layoffs involved 19 editorial staffers, who were notified in April that these terminations were coming, the Washington Post reported.
Article assignments will be contracted to freelancers or pieced together by the few editors remaining on staff. The cuts also eliminated the magazine’s small audio department, the report said.
The Washington-based magazine, which has surveyed science and the natural world for 135 years, will no longer be available on newsstands in the US as of next year, the newspaper reported.
Many departing employees confirmed the news on Twitter.
“NatGeo is laying off all of its staff writers,” tweeted Craig Welch, one of National Geographic’s now former senior writers.
“I’ve been so lucky. I got to work with incredible journalists and tell important, global stories. It’s been an honour.”
The journalist Doug Main said on Twitter on Tuesday: “National Geographic is laying off its staff writers, including me.”
The layoffs at National Geographic by the publication’s parent company, Disney, were the second over the past nine months, and the fourth since a series of ownership changes began in 2015, The Post reported.
In September, Disney removed six top editors in a reorganisation of the magazine’s editorial operations.
Staffing changes will not affect the company’s plans to continue publishing a monthly magazine “but rather give us more flexibility to tell different stories and meet our audiences where they are across our many platforms”, National Geographic spokesman Chris Albert told the newspaper.
National Geographic’s new editor-in-chief Nathan Lump told Axios News in a November interview that the outlet plans to invest more in social video as the brand continues to modernise.
However, the company doesn’t plan to reduce its monthly print magazine publishing schedule, despite its shift to digital, he had said.
Mr Lump said he’s trying to expand the company’s digital footprint to include more short-form video, specifically via TikTok and Instagram Reels.
In the future, he wants more National Geographic stories, whether in print or online, to originate from social videos captured in the field.
“Our incredible social reach is largely based on our strength on Instagram, which is based on our strength in photography, which is great,” he said.
“But obviously, we know that video is driving a lot of engagement in social, and that’s where a lot of growth is in terms of engagement and users and social platforms. And so we need to put a lot more emphasis there.”
National Geographic is mostly owned by Disney, which acquired a majority stake in the brand as part of its 2019 deal to purchase Fox media assets.
At its peak in the late 1980s, the magazine reached 12 million subscribers in the US and millions more overseas, according to The Post.
It remains among the most widely read magazines in America. At the end of 2022, it had just under 1.8 million subscribers, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.
National Geographic was launched by Washington’s National Geographic Society, a foundation formed by 33 academics, scientists and would-be adventurers, including Alexander Graham Bell.
The magazine was initially sold to the public as a perk for joining the society. It grew into a stand-alone publication slowly but steadily, reaching 1 million subscribers by the 1930s.
The job cuts at National Geographic follow a series of layoffs in the media industry in recent months amid a challenging period that is forcing them to cut costs to survive a weak advertising market.
In an email sent to staff in April, online media outlet BuzzFeed said it is laying off 15 per cent of its staff members and shutting down its news unit as part of efforts to reduce spending and save capital, the company’s chief executive Jonah Peretti said.
The terminations will affect about 180 employees across the company’s content, administration, business, and technology teams.
This was the second round of layoffs within five months at BuzzFeed – in December, the company had announced plans to cut its workforce by about 12 per cent.
Vice Media Group, known for popular websites including Vice and Motherboard, laid off about a dozen employees and filed for bankruptcy protection in May to engineer its sale to a group of lenders.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
England's all-time record goalscorers:
Wayne Rooney 53
Bobby Charlton 49
Gary Lineker 48
Jimmy Greaves 44
Michael Owen 40
Tom Finney 30
Nat Lofthouse 30
Alan Shearer 30
Viv Woodward 29
Frank Lampard 29
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
