Since its founding 137 years ago, National Geographic has endured many shifts in the media landscape, transitioning from a print-focused magazine to a diversified digital media entity. Now, as audiences have become fragmented more than ever with the rise of streaming, NatGeo’s content president, Courteney Monroe, says the company’s secret to enduring through the latest shift is taking a “platform agnostic” approach.
“We spend a lot of time thinking less about linear versus streaming versus editorial, but rather across the board how do we differentiate ourselves in today’s marketplace and even within the Walt Disney Company?,” Monroe told TheWrap’s Office With a View. “It really goes back to the brand, which is always our North Star. That yellow border is our filter for decision making and the brand sits at the heart of everything we do. The strategy is really to tell gripping, factual stories that entertain and also inspire a deeper connection to our world, regardless of genre and platform.”
When it comes to executing NatGeo’s content strategy, Monroe says the focus is on storytelling that will resonate with a modern audience, is bold, unexpected and entertaining, and is “going to speak to one’s head and one’s heart.”
“When it comes to Disney+ specifically, we have the good fortune of having the National Geographic brand tile sit alongside Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar and Hulu. It’s a very, very high bar for entertainment,” she added. “So it’s critical that our content is entertaining and propulsive first.”
After once saying that its linear networks “may not be core” to the company, Disney CEO Bob Iger recently touted the combined advantage of its linear and streaming assets as competitors Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery plan to spin off their cable businesses into separate, publicly-traded companies.
NatGeo currently reaches up to 487 million households in at least 175 countries and 40 languages, available via linear networks and through the tile in Disney+. Per Disney’s latest annual report for its fiscal year 2024, National Geographic’s linear channels had a total of 66 million subscribers.
Its content was also read by at least 72 million people in the first quarter of 2025 across its digital properties and 52 editions of its magazine published in 23 languages. National Geographic prints 12 magazines annually, although it ceased selling copies on the newsstand in 2023. Additionally, the brand has 782 million followers across all major platforms, generating at least 1.4 billion impressions over the past quarter.
“The power and the combination of linear and streaming and then all of our digital and social platforms is really unrivaled. At this moment, there is such a premium on creative excellence and Bob articulated it best that the combination is much more powerful than them being apart,” Monroe said. “I don’t want to speak to other companies’ strategies. I just know that we all feel really optimistic and confident about the strategy that Disney is pursuing.”
At the same time, the audience declines in the linear business have prompted pay TV operators like Charter Communications and DirecTV to push for more flexibility in their bundle offerings. In a surprising move on Thursday, Charter reached a deal with Disney to restore Disney Jr., Disney XD, Freeform, FXX, FXM, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo and BabyTV to Spectrum TV packages after they were dropped in the companies’ 2023 carriage renewal.
“Obviously there’s changes in the linear channel ecosystem, but we still have a very vibrant and strong linear channel business, not just in the US, but around the world, that gives us the ability to engage a lot of consumers,” Monroe said. “That ecosystem is going to continue to evolve. But when we are packaged inside of the other brands and networks inside the Walt Disney Company, it gives us a huge advantage.”
Check out the rest of TheWrap’s conversation with Monroe below.
TheWrap: Talk to me about your career trajectory and how you landed in your current role.
Monroe: I have spent 27 years in entertainment and over the course of that time, I have worked on behalf of only two juggernaut brands – HBO and National Geographic – which stand for quality above all else.
My first job out of college before that was an ad agency, BBDO. It’s where I fell in love with marketing, storytelling, the creative process and being surrounded by really creative people. I then went and got my MBA at Wharton, because I had a desire just to understand business more broadly, more deeply. When I came out of business school, I took a pretty traditional marketing job at American Express. The job was not a creative marketing job and I really deeply missed being in a more creative environment like I’d been in advertising. So it was at that point I committed myself to continue in marketing and advertising, but I wanted to do it in creative businesses for creative products.
So I got a job at HBO and ultimately spent almost 14 years there heading up all of marketing and digital during what was a really pivotal, cultural defining era at the company. I had the amazing privilege of working on shows like Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Game of Thrones. That was a very special place and experience in New York City I thought I would never leave.
But then for family reasons, we moved to Washington, DC, where I am now and from originally, because my husband got a job here, and it was his professional turn, but also because my mom was ill at the time. It was an opportunity to be back closer to her when she was sick.
They say everything in life is timing and right after I announced I was leaving HBO, National Geographic television networks, which is based in Washington and was owned by Fox at the time, came calling. I joined as the CMO and two years later was promoted to run the networks business and stayed with National Geographic through the Disney acquisition. My job has continued to evolve, but I would say that never in a million years did I anticipate that move that I made for personal reasons would lead to such a thrilling chapter in my career, nor did I ever anticipate that my job would entail anything other than marketing.
How have your previous experiences helped you in your current role?
I’m very grateful that I got my start in marketing. As a marketer, you’re trained to always think about the consumer first. In our case, it’s the viewer, the reader, the subscriber. But that mindset is really invaluable in every business, no matter how that business is transforming and undergoing change.
Something that hasn’t changed despite all of the significant transition in the business is that, even back when I was at HBO, extraordinary content and storytelling inside a vital brand was the most important. It was essential, and it’s still essential today. The amount of content and the number of platforms changed, but ultimately it’s about creating extraordinary storytelling inside vital brands.
When it comes to attracting the creative talent behind your content, how much of it is you pitching them versus them pitching you?
It’s really a combination of both. We’ve really become a port of call for some of the biggest creative talent in the world. The brand has long attracted the best photographers in the world, but now the same can be said of the talent that works with us in television and film.
People come to National Geographic because of a combination of a couple things. One is the power of this brand really means a lot to people. The other is the scale of our platforms. Talent gets very excited when we talk to them about the content ecosystem that we will leverage to amplify the stories, not just on Disney+ and linear, but also in the magazine, in digital, in social. That’s a very powerful sell to talent that gets them very excited. We’re making things that are very aligned to our brand and we think are really distinctive in the marketplace and within Disney. A lot of the best talent in the world really like the opportunity to tell stories with purpose and that’s what National Geographic storytelling ultimately is.
We get our door gets knocked on quite a bit, certainly in the documentary film space. We’ve really established ourselves as a leader in the feature documentary film space, but really in the series space as well. We have a long standing relationship with Darren Aronofsky and Protozoa Pictures. We have a long standing relationship with Jim Cameron. We just launched a show Underdogs with Ryan Reynolds, which I think is a great example of how we’re taking traditional National Geographic storytelling and turning it on its head to engage a modern audience. And Ryan and Maximum Effort pitched that show to us, its a mash up between premium wildlife and natural history and Ryan Reynolds scripted comedy. We like to say it’s a bit more Deadpool than David Attenborough. It was a very, very quick and easy yes.
Sometimes we will have an idea for something and find the right filmmaker or the production company or talent to front it and sometimes they come to us. This summer, we’re going to launch the second installment of Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, which is a really fun new season. He swore after the first season he wasn’t going to do another one, just because it was really a lot of work and time consuming. But he loved the project and ultimately is really passionate about science and longevity and how to live longer, healthier lives. So he came back to do more with us. We went to him with that idea initially, and now he came back and said he wanted to do more.
How is the rise in artificial intelligence in Hollywood and media impacting the way you think about content?
It’s definitely a conversation that we’re all having. As a company, Disney is super, committed to exploring how to use AI in really responsible, ethical, human, centered ways that respect the individual’s role in creativity, that protect IP. National Geographic photography is authentic and real and we need to protect that. But, like everyone in this business, we’re certainly discussing how it can enrich the stories that we’re telling, empower our creative partners to do their their best work, but also maintain our commitment to being a trusted, authentic brand. I don’t have all those answers, but we’re having all the right conversations.
Are you using the technology currently?
It’s very limited. We’re really not using it at this point. I think some of our production companies are a little bit and we’re in discussions with them, but it’s nascent. We are not on the forefront of that, which would make sense if you think about our brand. It’s all documentary, nonfiction storytelling, editorial. That’s not to say there aren’t ways, but it’s not surprising that we wouldn’t really be on the forefront of that.
What’s your advice for young people looking to break into the entertainment and media industries? For people in the industry looking to take the next step in their careers?
My number one piece of advice would be to say that who you work for matters more than what your job is. The most important thing you can do at every step of your career is to find someone who both values you and makes you better. Whether you’re starting out or where if you just want to level up, I would say relationships are paramount.
It sounds cliche, but it’s critical to treat people with the utmost respect. In my experience, 99% of tension, friction, conflict at work stems from people not feeling respected. So if you approach people and situations with that in mind, it’s amazing how much easier and more enjoyable work will be.
And then I would say to somebody who is looking to level up, have the confidence to surround yourself with people who are smarter, more creative and more capable than you are, and who are willing to tell you the truth, because that is going to make you better and help you level up. I see far too many people who seem afraid to do that and it feels incredibly misguided to me. Always stay curious. The pace of change is unprecedented, so you’ve got to be committed to continuous learning, from day one until your final day of your career.
