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My journey

Six lessons from the early years of Mongabay

“When are you going to get a real job?” I heard this a lot in the early years—from my parents, my peers in Silicon Valley, even a partner at a consulting firm who tried to recruit me out of college. I had stepped away from stability into uncertainty. I’d always had a job since I […]

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My journey The Business of Mongabay

Starting something new as an outsider: Lessons from building Mongabay Indonesia

Do you want to contribute to something impactful in a place where you’re an outsider? Here’s what I learned starting Mongabay-Indonesia, an environmental news service in a country where I didn’t even speak the language. 1) Find the right people. The real secret? It’s not about having all the answers—it’s about finding people who do. […]

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Media appearances My journey The Business of Mongabay

I never set out to become a journalist.

Over the next couple of months, I plan to share weekly posts like this, offering context and insights on my journey in a format different from my usual style. My goal is to explore whether this approach resonates with new audiences and communities. I never set out to become a journalist. When I started Mongabay, […]

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My journey The Business of Mongabay

Mongabay’s 25th birthday

On June 8, 1999, Mongabay was officially launched. So today is officially Mongabay’s 25th birthday. Over the past several days, many people have been asked about the history of Mongabay. This an extended version: https://mongabay.cc/pazNOU Here’s a brief version: I founded Mongabay out of my love for tropical forests. The site’s initial model was based […]

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My journey The Business of Mongabay Tips

Lessons from 25 years of Mongabay

Next week marks 25 years since I founded Mongabay out of my passion for nature. I never imagined that a personal effort to raise awareness about tropical forests would evolve into a global network of dedicated journalists reporting from nature’s frontlines. It’s been incredible to see the contributions of these talented individuals making a real-world […]

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My journey The Business of Mongabay

Pursuing impact over pageviews

As noted before, shifting Mongabay from a for-profit to a nonprofit granted us the privilege to prioritize impact over chasing clicks. This move freed us to give away our stories and view other media outlets as potential partners rather than competitors. If our articles are republished, that helps us fulfill our mission by helping inform […]

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My journey Talks The Business of Mongabay

Stories from Nature’s frontline – Talk in the San Francisco Bay Area

In October 2023 in an event at Holbrook Palmer Park in Atherton, CA, I spoke about conservation journalism in the world’s most biodiverse places. I talked about my journey of growing Mongabay from a personal passion project into a multinational nonprofit media organization that covers critical issues affecting wildlife, wild places, and communities globally. I […]

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My journey The Business of Mongabay

Navigating difficult news industry trends

“How are you responding to challenging trends in the news industry?” To provide background context in answering this frequently asked question, I usually direct people to the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report and materials from the Pew Research Center. Here are a few key data points from these resources I find particularly relevant: ☑ Decline in […]

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Announcements My journey

Joining the Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics

In April, I formally joined the advisory council for the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Bioacoustics will revolutionize biodiversity monitoring, transform how we evaluate the effectiveness of conservation, and create new opportunities to engage the public around wildlife and ecosystems. The K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation […]

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Announcements My journey Tips

A billion lifetime pageviews for Mongabay

Mongabay just hit 1 billion lifetime pageviews. It took almost 23 years. Here’s my key takeaway from the journey. One billion pageviews is a small number compared with platforms like YouTube and Facebook or mainstream news outlets like The New York Times, but for a niche provider of environmental news like Mongabay, the interest in our […]

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Mongabay Features My journey

Mongabay’s origin story

One of the few benefits of having a father who had to fly each week from San Francisco to meet clients in Hawaii and Alaska during my formative years was the airline miles — my father had a ton. So many, in fact, that our family didn’t have to spend a lot of money on […]