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Fox’s Nat Geo Partners unveils team

National Geographic Partners, the fledgling joint venture between National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox, has revealed its senior leadership team with Courteney Monroe overseeing global programming.

Nat Geo's Courteney Monroe

Courteney Monroe

Monroe, who is CEO of Nat Geo’s US channels business, will take the same role at National Geographic Global Networks and oversee global programming, operations and marketing for nets including National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo People and Nat Geo Mundo.

The former HBO exec will also oversee National Geographic Studios, which is behind Brain Games and Explorer as well as large-format films and short-form videos, with the division incorporated into the channels operations under NGC president of programming Tim Pastore and general manager of Wild Geoff Daniels

Nat Geo told C21 that the firm would also continue to operate programming hubs in London, New York and Washington DC. Hamish Mykura, the London-based executive VP and head of international content for National Geographic Channels International (NGCI), will report to Monroe.

Elsewhere Ward Platt, chief operating officer at Fox International Channels and CEO of NGCI, will assume the newly created role of chief operating officer of NGP and have oversight of international operations. He will partner with Moore to drive revenues across NGP businesses, including channels distribution, advertising revenue, digital publishing, licensing, travel and consumer products.

Finally Jeffrey Schneider, who is currently NGC’s exec VP of business and legal, takes the same role for NGP while National Geographic magazine editor in chief Susan Goldberg will oversee all publishing under the new venture, which has been formally completed. It is being overseen by NGP CEO Declan Moore, with further appointments due in the coming weeks.

“National Geographic is one of the world’s most trusted brands, delivering unique and compelling storytelling of science, discovery and wonder to consumers for over a century,” Moore said.

“We’re excited to officially begin our journey to bring a new and integrated National Geographic experience to people worldwide, and I look forward to partnering with Ward Platt and working with Susan Goldberg, Courteney Monroe and Jeffrey Schneider to share the National Geographic mission with an even larger audience.”

In September, Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox paid US$725m to expand its partnership with National Geographic Society and create the new JV, which it has a 73% stake in.

NGP combines the previously non-profit National Geographic magazines, National Geographic Studios, books, maps and children’s media ancillary activities with the National Geographic television channels, which Fox has owned and operated for the past 18 years.

Two months later, National Geographic Society in the US revealed it was slashing almost 10% of its workforce, representing the organisation’s highest number of redundancies in its 127-year history.

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