'An evolutionary leap'

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 15, 1996 by Lorraine Calvacca

After more than two decades of near-fossilization, Natural History was becoming a bit of a dinosaur. But the 500,000- circulation title of the American Museum of Natural History has made what editor in chief Bruce Stutz calls "an evolutionary leap," with a major redesign.

Culminating in the February issue, the new look is a reflection of the museum's mission to make science more accessible. The 96-year-old Manhattan-based magazine "seemed forbidding, a little old and gray," says Stutz, former editor of Audubon. "Readers were a little numb. It's important they be surprised each issue."

Since joining Natural History in May, Stutz has been surprising subscribers and staffers alike through a series of incremental editorial changes.

For at least 20 years, typeless covers picturing animals have been the book's mainstay. "What has been lacking has been a sense of intimacy that readers can gain," Stutz comments. One of his first radical departures was to feature a Tasmanian hunter reaching into a bird's nest. "That really shook things up," he recalls. That cover was followed by a black-and-white cover--quite uncharacteristic--of a blind woman playing the violin.

To refine and consolidate those and other changes into a revitalized design, Stutz and publisher Linda Cherry hired British editorial consultant Roland Schenk, whose background includes makeovers of British Vogue, Marie France, the Swiss title Du and the Times of London. "Roland has really given the magazine an open look, an elegant appearance," says Stutz.

Schenk says the biggest challenge in redesigning his first American publication was to bring it into the current era. "The front of the book was a typographical desert," he recalls. In its previous incarnation, the book opened directly into a short feature, without decks or other reader-friendly elements. Now, NH begins with a colorfully illustrated two-page book review and a side-bar of suggested reading, and is followed by a new one-page humor column called "Science Lite." Unlike a majority of front sections, which open with a melange of bitty hits, Stutz kept the pages at a more substantial length. "Our readers are eager to read," he stresses.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Graphically, Schenk changed the body copy from the "humdrum" Times to the more "classical" Bembo, reducing the size to 10-point type. He also created "multiple points of entry": pull quotes, decks, longer captions, illustrations and images that add to the stories rather than repeat what's already in them.

Another change: sell lines on the cover, which are contained in an unobtrusive box on the left. "You can have the most beautiful cover in the world, but you still need to get readers in," Stutz observes.

In fact, Schenk and Stutz have increased the emphasis on original photography throughout the book. The intention, says Stutz, is "to let the photos tell their own story and have the reader learn through them." Stutz is also stepping up the use of full-length pictorials by internationally known photographers such as Eugene Richard, Enrico Feriorelli and Lori Grinker. Previously, most images came from stock houses.

New writers, too, are bringing a journalist's sensibility to features, which now appeal to an audience beyond the scientific community. Some top names in recent issues include The New Yorker contributors Jessica Maxwell and Henry Cooper, and Jeannie Ralston, a contributor to Audubon, Travel & Leisure and New York.

Teaming journalist, photographer and scientist underscores the magazine's goal to take the stories out of the laboratory. "We have a motivated readership that craves an insider view," says Stutz. "They want to enter the lives of ancient and modern people and explore the world's natural wonders."

Exploration of that world is becoming much broader. New columns cover art, food, cultural traditions, music and travel. "World Beat" for example, looks at global music trends. It alternates with "A Matter of Taste," a food column that studies the studies the history of food and its role in world culture. The magazine's first travel issue, this April, will include a feature about a family's vacation fossil-hunting in South Dakota. "Field Guide" is a column that recommends books and travel tips related to stories in the issue. Stutz and Cherry expect to attract younger readers and thus new advertisers in travel and other categories.

Stutz acknowledges that some perusers will assume a lack of substance in such a dramatic makeover: "That's the dumb blonde theory--if it looks good it can't be substantial." He's confident, however, that they will soon recognize that the information quality is as strong as ever. The title's skeletal structure, he points out, has not been dismantled, but fleshed out. As NH nears 100, Stutz notes "the one thing that has sustained it is readers' interest in seeing the world."