Big Cover and Spine Format Changes in the May 2018 Issue of the Nat Geo Magazine

[Philip Riviere]

The May 2018 issue has major changes to the format of the cover and the spine.

On the cover the date of the issue was moved from the bottom of the picture up to the top of the yellow border. That space previously announced war bonds, supplements and TV shows. The date format was changed from  May 2018 to 05.2018

On the spine the words National Geographic were removed (after over 100 years there) and replaced with a border rectangle. Here again the date format was changed from May 2018 to 05.2018  This will allow more space on the spine.

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[George Thomas Wilson]

That Cover Format lasted until February 2024:

In March 2024 a new Cover Format was introduced:

[Juan Carlos Herrera del Castillo]

I like the volume, number and full date to be back on the cover. What about the spine? Will it keep the last format?

By the way, the Spanish edition never changed to the new spine, nor the XX.XXXX date, and now I hope it will never do!

[Juan Carlos Herrera del Castillo]

Good, old spine and date ;)

[George Thomas Wilson]

Juan,

I haven't received my March issue yet, so I don't know about the spine.

Let me know (with photos) when you get your March issue.

[George Thomas Wilson]

Juan,

I got my March issue.  It has a different cover than the one I posted above.

The spine is not much different than the older version.

The date is different: February - 02.2024 and March - March 2024

The main article: February - Red/Bold and March - Plain Text

Magazine name: February - [blank] and March - National Geographic

Yours in Collecting,

Tom

[Juan Carlos Herrera del Castillo]

I like this spine much more than the previous one.

The page of the article is back on the cover for the first time since year 2000, I think.

I'm excited to see the Spanish edition, but sometimes it takes a few months for the changes to arrive.  I'll let you know.

Juan Carlos.

[Scott T. Shier]

Juan - I agree 100%. I did not care for the 2018 "make over".

- Scott

[Juan Carlos Herrera del Castillo]

No changes in the March issue of the Spanish edition yet. Let's see in the following months!

[George Thomas Wilson]

So anyway, this month is getting stranger and stranger.  I received the color photo cover issue I had ordered, and it showed up with a barcode.  It was not advertised with one, as a matter of fact, all the posting of it on eBay do not show a barcode.  Is there a version without the barcode?

In a related note, on the bottom of page 4 there is a credit for the cover photo.  In either version, the credit is for the infrared (black-and-white) photo.

[Juan Carlos Herrera del Castillo]

That is weird, as I thought that the American edition had ceased to be sold in newstands and was now subscription only. Why the barcode, price, and two cover versions, then?

By the way, as we talked about the changes to the spine: in my collection I've got some examples of how different foreign editions adopted those changes (or not):

- Full new version (logo, date format XX.XXXX, no "National Geographic"): Georgian (as of 06.2018), Turkish (as of 06.2018), Romanian (as of 07.2019), Russian (as of 08.2019), Lithuanian (as of 05.2022).

- Partial new design:

    * Logo, full date, no "National Geographic": Hungarian (as of 09.2018), Bulgarian (as of 10.2018), Slovenian (as of 07.2023).

    * Logo, date format XX.XXXX, "National Geographic": Serbian (as of 09.2018).

- No changes to old design (no logo, full date, "National Geographic"): Czech (as of 07.2019), German (as of 08.2019), Italian (as of 08.2021), Arabic (as of 11.2022), Spanish (as of 02.2024).