“National Geographic” magazine has racked up a number of firsts in its 108-year history, says editor William L. Allen as he proudly ticks off accomplishments – pioneer in the use of the 35 mm camera, first to do aerial and underwater color photography and the first magazine to publish in full color. “All of these things are firsts that `Geographic’ just doesn’t trumpet a great deal.”
But “Geographic” wasn’t in a rush to put its content on CD-ROM. While other publications raced to produce multimedia packages for the booming CD-ROM market, “Geographic” took its time to decide how to best present the magazine’s legendary photographs, stories, maps and graphics in this new format.
“We looked at it and said, `The magazine is the magazine and any attempt that we make to add bells and whistles potentially detracts from what is this fabulous publication,”‘ said Larry Lux, senior vice president and managing partner for National Geographic Interactive.
“So we consciously took the complete archive and literally scanned it in page by page from 1888 through December of last year,” Lux said. “Every page, every cover, every ad, everything (is) exactly as it appeared in the magazine.”
The result is “The Complete National Geographic – 108 Years of National Geographic Magazine,” a 30-disk collection featuring 7,500 articles from more than 1,200 issues (Mindscape, Sept. 19 release, hybrid).
Lux says the only addition to the original content is a proprietary search engine built around “Geographic’s” internal index. “You can type in `gorillas’ and get every article we’ve ever done on gorillas. Or type in `Jane Goodall’ and get every article that Jane’s ever written.
“And we also added in – and this is the fun part of it – an index for all the ads over the years. You can type in `Kodak’ and see all the Kodak ads from 1906 through last year,” Lux continues. “It (the ads) gives you a real slice of Americana and where we’ve come as a society.”
At less than $200, the CD-ROM collection is a real bargain – and a spacesaver. Lux points out the magazine is “one of the few publications where everyone fills up their basement or garage with old issues and can’t bear to part with them.”
Perhaps the CD-ROM will help people “feel like they can donate some of the old magazines to a school, and they’ll have plenty of room to add the new `National Geographic’ magazines,” Allen says.
“But if you happen to have a Vol. 1, No. 1 lying around, do not part with it for less than $10,000,” he cautions.
When asked how much a complete set of the printed magazine would cost, Allen said he wasn’t sure but guessed that it would be “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
And, Lux says, this collection is just the beginning. “We’ll be coming out with updates every year of the magazine. For the next year or two, we’ll stick with the CD-ROM (format) and see what develops in terms of DVD and in terms of bandwidth.”
OF PHOTOS, QUIZZES AND SAFARIS
On Tuesday, National Geographic Interactive is debuting three CD-ROMs that complement the magazine library. They are:
“National Geographic Photo Gallery,” Mindscape, Win95/3.1, $35: The photographs of top “National Geographic” photojournalists are presented in such categories as endangered species, national parks, flowers, geography and others. “We’re bundling that with Mindscape’s PrintMaster (Gold Classic 4.0), which is a print productivity tool, so you can actually take those (3,000) photographs and make greeting cards or calendars or banners and whatever,” says Interactive’s Larry Lux.
“GeoBee Challenge,” Mindscape, hybrid, $30, ages 8 and up: “We took the question base from the National Geography Bee and incorporated it into a CD-ROM game,” says Lux. “It’s sort of `You Don’t Know Jack’ meets the `Geographic.’ It’s got these animated characters and our little buzz line on the package is `latitude with attitude.’ The nice thing is these questions have been used in the bee for the last 10 years, so they’ve been researched. They’re solid questions appropriate to the age group.”
“Swinging Safari Explore and Print,” Mindscape, hybrid, $30, ages 8-12: Based on “National Geographic’s” award-winning “Really Wild Animals” television and video series, this activity center takes kids on virtual assignments to Africa, Lux says. “They can take their own pictures and download information on animals, wander around the Savannah and create postcards or reports or newspaper articles from whatever they gather. Dudley Moore does the voiceovers.”
