Mother Nature Network (mnn.com) was a news and information website focused on sustainability and ranked by

Alexa Internet Alexa Internet, Inc. was a web traffic analysis company based in San Francisco, California. It was founded as an independent company by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat in 1996. Alexa provided web traffic data, global rankings, and other info ...

as the most visited for-profit website in the world in its environmental category. It was labeled "the green CNN" by

Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

, "green machine" by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

, and "best of the breed" by

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

. Founded in 2009 by former marketing executive Joel Babbit and

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

keyboardist Chuck Leavell, it was the flagship property of Narrative Content Group, whose equity partners included

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

and Discovery Inc."MNN.com Analytics"
SimilarWeb. Retrieved 2015-08-02. MNN generated revenue via exclusive content category sponsorships versus the traditional advertising model utilized by most websites. Brand partners included Walmart, Mercedes-Benz, AT&T,

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its common stock is a c ...

, Coca-Cola, UPS, Allstate, Dell, Subway, MillerCoors, Bayer, Dunkin' Brands, and many other leading corporations. In February of 2020, Narrative sold Mother Nature Network and

TreeHugger ''TreeHugger'' is a sustainability website that reports on news, and other subjects like eco-friendly design, homes, and gardens. It was rated the top sustainability blog of 2007 by Nielsen Netratings, and was included in ''Time'' Magazine's ...

, another of its sustainability focused websites acquired from Discovery, to digital media company Dotdash, an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IAC). The two sites were then merged and operate under the Treehugger name.

Content

It covered a wide range of topics beyond traditional "green" issues – including family, pets, travel, health, home, and food.Has Mother Nature found key to Web success?
" ''USA Today'' (2012-12-24)
" ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' (2008-07-20)

Board of directors and advisors

* Joel Babbit, CEO of Narrative Content Group and Mother Nature Network * Thomas Bell Jr., Chairman of Mesa Capital Partners (former Chairman and CEO of

Young & Rubicam VMLY&R was an American marketing and Marketing communications, communications company specializing in advertising, Digital media, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the 2020 mer ...

and Chairman of U.S. Chamber of Commerce) * Gerald Benjamin, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Atlanta Equity (former Vice Chairman of GreenSky) * A.D. "Pete" Correll, Co-founder and Chairman of Atlanta Equity (former Chairman and CEO of

Georgia-Pacific Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of Tissue paper, tissue, Pulp (paper), pulp, paper, toilet and paper towe ...

Corporation) * Doug Hertz, CEO of United Distributors Inc. and Partner in the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

* Chuck Leavell, Keyboardist for the Rolling Stones * James D. Robinson III, Co-founder and General Partner of RRE Ventures, LLC (former Chairman and CEO of

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

) * Fred Seegal, Vice Chairman of Peter J. Solomon Company (former President of Wasserstein Perella)

Nonprofit partners

MNN worked with a wide range of

nonprofit organizations A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

, including: * American Farmland Trust * Captain Planet Foundation * Nature Conservancy *

National Wildlife Federation The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is the largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization in the United States, with over six million members and supporters, and 51 state and territorial affiliated organizations (i ...

Newman's Own Newman's Own is an American food company headquartered in Westport, Connecticut. Founded in 1982 by actor Paul Newman and author A. E. Hotchner, the company donates all of its after-tax profits to charity through Newman's Own Foundation, a pri ...

Foundation *

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability *

White House Correspondents' Association The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the president of the United States. The WHCA was founded on February 25, 1914, by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.mnn.com/ Internet properties established in 2009 American news websites American environmental websites Mass media companies established in 2009