New EW Series to Explore Web Environmental Journalism

Grist Magazine can be accurately, if somewhat dryly, described as a web-based environmental publication that features serious, in-depth reporting and analysis, which it leavens with more feature-oriented material and a generous sprinkling of puns and other edgy jests through the pages.

The motto of the Seattle-based magazine, which recently spun off from the Earth Day Network to become an independent nonprofit, puts it this way: "Gloom and doom with a sense of humor."

"It's a real tone, a deliberate tone," says Chip Giller, the 32-year-old founder, editor and "illustrious President for Life" of Grist (as the magazine's advice columnist, the composite-personality "Umbra Fisk" identified him recently).

"So much of this news is depressing or has been told before," Giller said. "People's eyes glaze over because it's gloom and doom. We use a sense of humor to get people to sit up and laugh, then engage in the news a little more."

Giller is a former editor of the online environmental publication Greenwire, an expensive-subscription news service in Washington. He started Grist in 1999 with Dennis Hayes, who coordinated the first Earth Day in 1970 and is president of the Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation, a $100 million environmental philanthropy.

"I was interested in writing environmental news," Giller said. "With Grist, I wanted to create something accessible to a broader audience. Our mission really is to inform people about environmental issues, motivating them to make a difference. It's journalism in the tradition of High Country News," a noted newspaper that covers environmental issues in the West.

Giller responds carefully when asked whether Grist, until recently a "project" of the Earth Day Network that Hayes chairs, is an "advocacy" publication.

"We're sort of akin to Mother Jones," he said, referring to the left-leaning magazine that emphasizes investigative reporting. "We don't take stands on particular issues, but we do hope for environmental quality to be improved."

Giller said he knows of no comparable online publication -- independent and devoted to journalism on environmental issues -- on the conservative side of the political spectrum.

Grist's relationship with the Earth Day Network lasted through the end of 2002, when "a large grant" from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation was obtained to allow the magazine to become independent.

"Grist was never a house organ of Earth Day," Giller said. "We didn't exist to spread news about Earth Day, per se. We always had a distinct editorial voice."

He said he pursued the Rasmussen grant "because I felt it was important for a journalistic organization to be fully independent. Earth Day didn't constrain us in any way, but it suits the mission of Grist to be independent."

The mission of the Earth Day Network (founded to coordinate Earth Day 2000 events, 30 years after the first Earth Day) is "purely advocacy-based and ours is journalistic at its core," Giller said.

Even so, there's a place for the writings of both environmental journalists and environmental activists in the web pages that make up Grist's online presence.

Recent examples of the magazine's continuing emphasis on substantive reporting include profiles of three prominent environmental economists, interviews with this year's winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, and a lengthy Q&A with Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. Such reports typically appear in the department called "The Main Dish."

(Even though the magazine itself doesn't take editorial stands on issues, that doesn't mean writers of these longer Grist articles don't ever reach their own judgments. In a long piece about a Massachusetts windmill controversy that divided environmental groups, reporter Amanda Griscom concluded that "the opposition might have to come to terms with the fact that windmills, albeit nettlesome, are not in fact destructive beasts. On the contrary: Right now, they may be the best solution we've got.")

Contributors to Grist have included well-known environmental writers such as Bill McKibben, Mark Hertsgaard and Keith Schneider, as well as noted academic figures such as biologist E. O. Wilson and climatologist Stephen Schneider.

Another regular department is "Daily Grist," which is a summary of news items collected from major newspapers and news services, with links to the original publications. Other departments include content such as advice from "Umbra," book reviews, activists' diaries, and "hints for green buying and living." (A recent installment from this section, which appears under the "Earthly Possessions" heading, had tips for holding an environmentally sensitive wedding.)

Grist's multifaceted approach -- its melding of serious and humorous, news and features -- has attracted a sizable following, with about 100,000 website visitors a month. With a five-member staff, it regularly appears on Yahoo's "most popular" list of online environment and nature magazines.

Journalists are among Grist's regular readers, Giller said. "To some extent, I think our coverage acts as a tip sheet for journalists at mainstream publications."

Subscriptions to an email version of the Daily Grist now number 50,000 and are still increasing, Giller said. "It started with my closest 10 friends."

In perhaps two to three years, "things like audio and video will be core components of Grist as broadband expands," he predicted.

"A lot of the potential for online journalism hasn't been realized, but as a medium, it's being reinvented every day. The challenge, as with all publications, is finding an audience. We're really fortunate to find an audience that cares about us, reads us regularly and is growing rapidly."