Become a Friend of Natural History

It will likely come as no surprise to you that I am a friend of natural history. However you may not know that I am also a Friend of Natural History. I became one recently upon heeding the call of Natural History magazine’s new president and publisher Dr. Brad Balukjian.

Dr. Balukjian put out the call to let all the readers of this highly informative, entertaining, and important publication know that it is his intention to improve the reach (as the kids in the ad biz say) of the magazine, including an overhaul of its website (something long needed), providing increased visibility by creating a full suite of social media profiles, and establishing and maintaining a fair compensation structure for those who keep the magazine in print.

I don’t need to tell you that the availability of high quality, authoritatively written natural history print journalism published for a non-specialist readership is in short supply and getting even shorter with each passing year. In fact, when it comes to magazines wholly dedicated to the publication of such general natural history articles and long form essays, there is precisely one such magazine left still publishing in the increasingly benighted United States – you guessed it: Natural History.

So in furtherance of Dr. Balukjian’s recent call for help in not only keeping this great and long-respected magazine in publication (did I mention that its history stretches more than a century back to 1900?) but also giving it the structure and capabilities it will require in the vastly different and far more demanding communication landscape of the twenty-first century, I encourage you, please, to take up a subscription to Natural History and to help provide additional support by becoming a Friend of Natural History. If you like, you can even become a Friend to a Friend by making a donation that will provide a subscription of Natural History to your favourite library.

And just so we are all clear, given this incentivised influencer infected world, no one at Natural History has paid or even asked me to write this. My editorial rule is just as it has been ever since I founded The Well-read Naturalist in 2009: I do not accept ads, compensation, or any other manner of payment for anything you read here. I write (no AI – just little increasingly old me) about those things I find to be of interest, that I think are worth your time to read about, and that are worthy of attention through their own merit; all three of which are more than satisfied by Natural History magazine.