Friday / Weekend Open Line


One of the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious magazines printed its first issue this month in 1888 — the National Geographic, the publication of the National Geographic Society, founded earlier that year. One-hundred-twenty-five years ago, the magazine was a scholarly journal with fewer than a thousand subscribers. As it matured, it added photographic and map departments that boosted its circulation into the millions. The money generated was used to finance major explorations around the world. There are some 8,000 periodical publishers in the U.S. today, generating $39 billion in annual revenue. Americans on average spend $110 a year on all reading materials. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the ‘America’s Economy’ mobile application at <www.census.gov/mobile>.