Big picture guy

WASHINGTON – National Geographic photojournalist Chris Johns didn’t know he was stumbling into a pride of sleeping lions in the dense brush of Zimbabwe.

But when one of his guides tripped on a branch, the lions charged. The men had a rifle, but it was pointless against so many. And men don’t outrun lions.

With no other options, Johns swung his tripod over his head, screaming at the big cats. Eventually, the lions backed down.

“I should have been paying better attention,” Johns recalls nearly a decade later. “You make mistakes. You just try to not make the same mistakes.”

Today, Johns’ problem-solving skills face a more public, though less dangerous, test. He became National Geographic’s editor in chief earlier this year as the magazine confronts declining circulation and unprecedented competition from the Internet, cable television and other publications.

It’s still one of the largest magazines in the nation, but National Geographic is no longer the only way to see the world’s most remote corners. So Johns, 54, strives to maintain the magazine’s relevance by providing depth and context on global issues ranging from stem cells to hip-hop.

Those who know Johns say he is well equipped for the task. After graduating from high school in 1969, the Oregon native entered Oregon State University hoping to be a veterinarian. But classes like organic chemistry, which he found tedious, changed his mind.

An introductory journalism class left its mark.

He shot photographs for the campus newspaper as well as several area newspapers. Johns’ determination, not just his portfolio, gave him the edge over other candidates for an internship at the Topeka Capital-Journal, a Kansas newspaper heralded for its photography.

After four years at the newspaper, the National Press Photographers Association named Johns newspaper photographer of the year. By then, he had made contacts at National Geographic and soon began free-lancing for the magazine, eventually landing a full-time position.

His assignments took him around the world. Flying in a small plane over an erupting volcano in Zaire, the pilot miscalculated and flew too close as Johns was leaning out to take a picture. The camera protected his face, but the heat singed the plane’s paint and burned Johns’ sweater.

“You’re swept away in the moment, and you do naively have this feeling of invincibility because you’ve got a camera,” Johns said.

Johns became associate editor in 2003, and when Editor William Allen retired in January, Johns succeeded him.

In 2004, National Geographic had an average monthly circulation of about 8.5 million copies worldwide, down from 8.8 million in 2002. It is printed in 27 languages.

But the magazine faces tremendous competition for providing insight on the world, said Robert Poole, a former executive editor of the magazine who recently wrote a history of the National Geographic Society.

“The challenge (Johns) faces is that … now National Geographic is just one of a zillion ways to get information on the world and all that is in it,” Poole said. “You look at a story like the Indonesian tsunami. Within a week of the tsunami, The New York Times and other papers were explaining what tsunamis were, where they are, the cultural impact. They’re doing what National Geographic and only National Geographic would have done.”

Still, Johns’ appointment is rejuvenating the staff, Poole said.

“The thinking was, let’s bring in a guy who’s relatively young and has the respect of the staff,” Poole said. “If Chris is sending people to Tanzania or Japan, he knows what it takes to do the story. He has proven himself as a good storyteller, a good photographer.”

For Johns, the magazine’s mission remains the same: Enlighten readers about the world.

“Our job, and my job for years as a photographer, was to take relevant topics, turn them into relevant stories,” Johns said.

For example, the July cover story delves into the stem cell debate. A few months before Johns took over, the magazine published a cover story asking “Was Darwin Wrong?” The story firmly responded that he wasn’t. The Darwin issue posted the highest newsstand sales in the magazine’s history, and Johns holds it as an example of the magazine’s duties.

“We need to clear away the agendas, rhetoric and politics and say, ‘Here are the facts. You make the decision, reader,’ ” Johns said. “My role is to inspire you, to enlighten you, to give you insights.”

But his approach to showcasing those issues is evolving. He is varying the lengths of stories and making the magazine’s opening pages more accessible – to make National Geographic “a great five-minute read and a great two-hour read.”

With such goals in mind, Johns recently assigned a story on the anthropology of hip-hop, after listening to his teenage daughter’s Eminem and 50 Cent mix CDs.

“Hip-hop is part of our culture, and our culture is shaping the world and vice versa,” Johns said. “And of course it’s a great insight for me as a parent because I’m trying to figure out what this music means. We’re probably breaking the mold a little bit. We want to surprise people.”

And unlike editors of most large consumer magazines, Johns reports to a nonprofit.

“I’m beholden to being responsible, but I’m not supposed to turn a 20 percent profit, or more, like many media companies,” Johns said. “My job is to serve readers.We have to be thinking ahead, constantly engaged and identifying upcoming trends to guide people through life.”