Online publishers are strapping on their Birkenstocks. Buoyed by the breakaway success of An Inconvenient Truth, the film documentary of Al Gore’s environmental lecture, publishers like The Washington Post, National Geographic and others are increasing their offerings of ‘green’ content, hoping to attract readers and advertising revenues from manufacturers and retailers who are suddenly walking the earth-friendly path.
For instance, Washingtonpost. Newsweek Interactive, the online arm of the Washington Post Co, have introduced Sprig.com, a new website aimed at environmentally conscious women. The site is the first new property the company has built from scratch; it bought Slate.com and operates BudgetTravelOnline.com in partnership with Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine and Newsweek. Analysts says the initiative is well-enough timed and executed.
“If you looked at 10 new markets to go after right now, this would probably be close to the top, because the number of companies advertising green stuff will explode in the next couple of years,” says Josh Bernoff, an online media analyst with Forrester Research, a consulting firm. “And having an established company behind it is a good way to kick something like this off.”
Sprig.com features stories in five categories: food, fashion, beauty, home and lifestyle, with videos liberally mixed into each section. In the beauty section, a video features an eco-friendly manicure and pedicure, while in the food section, visitors can watch organic cooking demonstrations. The site will post about six new stories a day, written in a way one might characterise as Green Lite.
“We’re targeting this to the 95% of people who want to be 5% green,” says Jeanie Pyun, Sprig’s editor-in-chief. “Not the 5% of people who want to be 95% green.”
According to Mark Whitaker, the vice president and editor-in-chief of new ventures for the Post’s online division, Sprig has already signed up more than 100,000 subscribers to its daily e-mail newsletter, which it marketed on other Post sites like BudgetTravelOnline.com, in addition to sites outside the company.
Whitaker says the initiative follows a mandate from the Post’s chairman and chief executive, Donald E Graham to expand the digital division beyond its four websites, which last year generated more than $100 million in revenue (an increase of 28% over 2005). Sara Levinson, a former executive at Rodale, NFL Properties and MTV, pitched the idea to the Post last fall, Whitaker says.
“We thought the idea was very, very ripe,” Whitaker says, “so it was important to use to get it out there as quickly as possible.”
According to Goli Sheikholeslami, Sprig’s vice-president and general manager, ad rates should “be in line” with those on other Post websites. Finding interested advertisers, she says, has been less of a problem than it would be had the company not started life as a Post property. The company’s advertising sales staff is pitching Sprig to existing clients, many of whom are major brands.
One advertiser already lined up is the Clorox Co, which produces a range of consumer products including Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressings.
Analysts acknowledge some risk in investing big dollars in the green movement, given that past decades, the interest in environmentalism eventually waned.
But, they says, the internet offers media companies a good way to hedge. Even though a new website costs much to get off the ground, it is less expensive than starting a magazine or television production. And, a website can be adjusted more easily for shifting tastes.
Lauren Rich Fine, a former media analyst with Merrill Lynch, says it is too early to tell if the site will have any meaningful impact on the Post’s sales. “But there’s a good business reason to be green right now,” she says.
Bernoff, of Forrester, says that despite such innovation, Sprig still carries a whiff of old-media hubris because it has not done enough to incorporate the voices of its readers, with comments and social networking features, for instance.
The National Geographic Society is also rolling out a new site, Green.NationalGeographic.com. That site will include more than 2,000 pages of environmental news, how-to videos and tips on eco-friendly travel and activities.
According to Betsy Scolnik, president of National Geographic’s online division, the new site follows last month’s acquisition of TheGreenGuide.com, a website that, among other things, offers buying guides in various categories. TheGreenGuide’s content, she says, will appear both on NationalGeographic.com as well as the new ‘green’ site. As more established media companies focus on the green movement, independent green sites like TreeHugger.com are in an interesting position. Perhaps they accede to acquisition offers from traditional print publishers, or may be they watch those companies build sites and try to compete against their formidable sales and marketing teams.
