• by Melynda Fuller , May 18, 2018

This Saturday, The Wall Street Journal subscribers will notice an addition to their newspaper: the inaugural edition of National Geographic’s Far & Away.

Far & Away is geared to business travelers, advising them on “what to do when your meetings are over.” The magazine combines the business sense of the WSJ, offering global insights and information, with the celebrated cultural exploration that defines National Geographic.  

Slated to publish twice this year — issue two appears in the fourth quarter — the magazine will reach 750,000 Wall Street Journal print subscribers. Much of the content will also be available digitally at NationalGeographic.com.

Publishing Insider spoke with Susan Goldberg, editorial director, National Geographic Partners, and editor in chief, National Geographic Magazine, about how the idea for the magazine was born and how each brand will incorporate it into their content streams.

Publishing Insider: How did the partnership between National Geographic and The Wall Street Journal come about? What attracted the brands to each other?

Susan Goldberg: National Geographic Partners and The Wall Street Journal share ownership and a mission in journalism, but we have different areas of focus and audiences. We started to imagine ways to create a publication that would bring together the visual storytelling of National Geographic and the global business reporting of The Wall Street Journal.

Along with our respective teams, Gerry Baker (WSJ editor in chief) and I developed concepts that could succeed both in print and online. The best of these was Far & Away, our new title in the service of business travelers.

PI: Is now a good time to launch a print publication for a niche audience?

SG: Far & Away is sent to Wall Street Journal subscribers, so a title geared to business travelers distributed to business travelers didn't seem like a small niche to us. It seemed like a market opportunity. National Geographic has been investing in growing our travel business, from our travel content vertical to our experiential travel business, including the guided tours of National Geographic Expeditions and some 60 Unique Lodges of the World. 

As an industry, travel has profound economic impact and as a consumer editorial space, there is a lot of commercial support for travel content. So now is a great time to write about business travel and all travel.

PI: How will you integrate Far & Away’s content into your social-media plan? How will NatGeo's already strong presence across platforms enhance its presence?

SG: This is one of my favorite brags: National Geographic has been ranked the No. 1 brand in social media for four years in a row by Shareablee. We were just named the 2018 media company of the year at the Webby Awards. We have more than 412 million fans around the world, and we're the No. 1 travel brand on social, with more than 35 million followers. We have a massive social push behind Far & Away to reach business travelers everywhere.

We've built a great hub for the content, which is available to all — no paywall. It complements both the travel storytelling we have published for years at National Geographic as well as the weekend content of WSJ. 

PI: What is NatGeo's digital plan as far as making Far & Away available to new audiences? Will there be crossover with the WSJ?

SG: Far & Away launches online at the same time it launches in print, May 19. National Geographic developed a custom digital hub —natgeotravel.com/farandaway — loaded with the content from the print edition. In about a month, WSJ will launch its own content hub exclusively for subscribers.