Climate-change critic Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox has bought National Geographic’s media properties in a new venture valued at $725 million, both entities announced Wednesday.
Fox will own 73 percent of the new company, National Geographic Partners, and the National Geographic Society will own 27 percent, with a shared governance structure and equal representation on the board of directors. Under the deal, the monthly National Geographic magazine will become a for-profit publication for the first time in its 127-year history.
The partnership includes National Geographic’s other media outlets, including its cable television channels which Fox has owned and operated for the last 18 years.