Quote, unquote: The surprising place where NatGeo's new readers will come from

Even though it’s a very small piece of our circulation domestically, we see [new readers] coming from single copy sales. That’s something we watch very closely because that means someone put down $5.99 of hard-earned money and made the decision to buy this magazine. That is an especially important part of gauging relevance. There is an age group that’s probably 10 years younger than the subscribers who are buying that newsstand copy. We’re very tuned in to what’s appealing to them and what isn’t. If they can get hooked on that single copy issue, we can track where that subscription came from. We’re certain we’ve got an audience skewed a little younger with the Web.

-- Chris Johns, editor of National Geographic, whose title was named this year's Magazine of the Year at the U.S. National Magazine Awards, responding to a question from Folio: magazine about where he thinks new readers are going to come from. An interesting answer, since at one time National Geographic didn't sell on newsstands.