Susan Goldberg, the Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic Magazine and Editorial Director of National Geographic Partners (a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company and the namesake non-profit scientific organization National Geographic Society, which oversees all commercial activities related to the Society, including magazine publications and television channels), reconciles the challenges of leading an almost one-and-a-half centuries old legacy media brand in the evolving modern media landscape.
She explains how National Geographic’s scientific and fact-based approach remains the foundation of the publication and how its various platforms continue to bring the world to its readers, viewers, and listeners in a manner and as a whole which still remains unrivaled today.
Goldberg focuses on leading her organization in a manner which respectfully and accurately covers our planet’s changing cultures. Race, gender and Climate Change are key issues that National Geographic addresses in powerful ways across all of its media platforms.
She harkens back to National Geographic’s century-old archives to times of less social awareness. As the current Editor of the magazine, Goldberg has commissioned a look back at some over-simplistic and racially insensitive depictions of native peoples and cultures around the world that the magazine once published, as she works toward moving the publication to view the world through a more diverse lens.
While honored to be the first woman breaking glass ceilings in many career roles throughout her life, Goldberg looks to the next generation and hopes that, in the future, being a woman in any workplace or position is no longer novel.