National Geographic

National Geographic is not only responsible for producing a print magazine, a tv station, and a museum store, they also have an interesting Web site. The Web site is visually appealing, and unlike some newspapers Web sites, its layout physically looks different than the magazine.

The Web site features articles from the print magazine, daily news that I'm guessing is repurposed for print, and of course, breath-taking pictures.

They also have content that is different and unique to the Web site. They have live webcams on the site featuring video (the current one shows video from the Belize Reef), they feature games like Virtual Explorer, and videos showcasing editors, writers, and photographers thoughts on covering current stories.

When I looked at their media kit, their numbers seem to be doing pretty well. They have 13 million unique visitors to their Web site each month and over 130 million page views per month overall.

In short, the National Geographic Web site provides creative, user-friendly content. It presents difficult scientific concepts in simple ways that are easy to understand for everyone. If I were to quibble with their coverage and Web site at all, it's that there isn't very much user-generated content. In fact, there isn't any user-generated content at all. You can't comment on articles, you can't submit photos, and there's no way to review or change content. However, despite that, I think that it's a good, clear Web site with great and interesting content.