Tim Kelly

October 20, 2008

President & CEO

National Geographic Ventures

The golden frame logo is one of the most recognized in the world. For decades, readers have associated it with National Geographic Magazine, and in recent years with its sister TV channel. Both inspire people to care about our planet. National Geographic Ventures’ Tim Kelly, who is also the president of National Geographic Global Media, is making sure that message is delivered across all the company’s businesses.

TV REAL: The National Geographic brand is so well-known and well-loved, what kind of projects and programs are worth investing in and worthy of the brand?

KELLY: We think a lot about that question, and it really comes down to where we want to focus our priorities. We feel there is a sense of urgency right now with what’s happening to the planet, to people and to the natural world. The planet is in a crisis mode in a lot of ways. So we want to focus our priorities on a series of big events, outreach, communication, research and exploration around some of these big issues, and those include climate, renewable energy, what’s happening to the earth’s systems that are sustaining life in this planet, protection of habitats and of course the human connection to all those stories.

We have had a number of big discussions internally to make sure we are focused on what we think is important. We’re not really a media company. We have media capabilities, but we are a nonprofit institution. We fund research, exploration and a lot of educational activities, and media is one of the ways we reach people. But we have to entertain people before we can inform them.

We are really focused on the big urgent issues of the day, and it’s not just the gloom and doom. We want to look at what happens in the long run based on the different choices we can make and focus on some of the solutions.

And we are particularly proud of our channel, which is now our biggest pipeline to people all around the planet. It has recently won the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Governors Award for our Preserve Our Planet Campaign.

TV REAL: The factual TV landscape is crowded. What helps your programming stand out?

KELLY: What makes it stand out is the multi-media package that we offer on these big stories. And we are trying to make cross-platform events at least a quarterly, if not a monthly, phenomenon. The next big one is typical of National Geographic. We have discovered what is believed to be Herod’s tomb. Herod’s Lost Tomb will be a major magazine cover story and a big television special; it will have digital [applications] and a book. We have a lot of weapons that bring to bear on a big story like this.

TV REAL: You are famous for taking a large important subject or discovery or exploration and spreading it out across platforms.

KELLY: The great thing about multiplatform is that it allows us to bring so much editorial strength to the research of a particular story. We are pretty obsessive about getting it right and going to the highest level of quality storytelling.

Examples of that would be The Lost Gospel of Judas or more recently Stonehenge Decoded, which was a big multimedia event. A few months ago the cover of the magazine was about gorilla murderers, focusing on what happened in the Congo. We had a filmmaking team and a photographic team working hand in hand in very difficult circumstances, with incredible access to the park and the rangers. The story there is that more than 110 rangers have been killed in the line of duty over the last decade, and there are only 380 mountain gorillas left in the Virunga region—it’s a fairly chaotic political situation in and around the Virunga National Park, so we are trying to bring attention to that using all the assets that we have.

TV REAL: The website does a lot to support the content you have.

KELLY: We are investing a lot in the website, so that it is an integral part of everything we do. Unique visitors are up nearly 30 percent from this time last year, and page views are up nearly 50 percent. The website is a tremendously important adjunct to all of our media.

TV REAL: A lot of media outlets are looking at our planet in crisis. What resources and depth of knowledge does Nat Geo offer viewers?

KELLY: Perspective, the range of experts and the long-standing relationships we have with the scientific community. We’re not trying to be advocates; we’re trying to be objective and absolutely accurate because there is a lot of confusion on what’s happening with the climate and some of the other big issues facing us. We’re trying to illuminate these issues and be constructive and not try to overly dramatize them.

—By Anna Carugati