TreeHugger Acquires Discovery Communications
by Graham Hill on 08. 1.07
Ok, ok. Not quite.
Close to four years ago, TreeHugger was founded with the goal of helping to push
sustainability into the mainstream. Today, as an award-winning Top 20 blog having served over 50 million pages, we like to believe that we've played a part in pushing green towards its tipping point. Today, we are proud to announce another big step toward that goal; Discovery Communications has acquired TreeHugger.
We suspected that at a certain point in TreeHugger's life that we would need to
attract significant investment or partner up with a large media organization if we
were to really take our message to the masses and fulfill our mission. Over the last year, we were approached by over 15 large companies interested in playing this role. We had many conversations and concluded that we needed a partner with a sizeable, international audience, a kindred brand and a high level commitment philosophically and financially to green.
Discovery fits these criteria to a T.
* They reach 1.5 billion (yes, billion!) cumulative subscribers around the world with top quality, often nature related non-fiction content
* They have commitment from the top of the company for over $50M to create content including programming for the world's first 24 hr green channel and in addition have allocated significant budget aimed at building the leading green web portfolio on the Internet
* They already have web properties serving hundreds of millions of pageviews per month
* They are looking to the TreeHugger team to help drive the direction of their green efforts online
We are honored that upon surveying the potential acquisition candidates or the option of building internally, Discovery elected to pursue making us a core element in their overall green strategy. We believe that this combination will allow TreeHugger to go much further and faster than it would have been able to alone or with another partner. If you believe what the world's scientists are saying, and I do, we have but a few years to make major changes in our relationship with nature. By teaming up with Discovery, we believe we can more effectively play a critical role in this mission.
We're bringing 2 premiere brands together, one with the largest broadcast, one with the largest online audience in this area. And then we're making the largest financial commitment towards green yet. Nice, no?
More after the jump...
What does this mean for TreeHugger and its readers?
TreeHugger will be able to push forward with strength by increased investment in the site, in its promotion and in its access to technologies, talent and content. TreeHugger will also be heavily involved in influencing the Planet Green websites that are being built out on Discovery. As a reader, you can expect TreeHugger to improve the quality and quantity of its offerings while maintaining the editorial integrity and attitude that you've enjoyed to date. You can also expect to see community tools that help you interact with each other and our writers as well as rate content. Discovery wants us to continue with the successful approach we've always taken, help us build a larger, deeper team, create new tools and help us reach a larger audience.
What does this mean for TreeHugger staff?
Little should change for the staff. Discovery acquired Treehugger because it values the brand, the site's high-quality content, its large group of dedicated readers
and its talented staff and contributors. The staff's general situation will improve due to the benefits that come from working for a larger, stable company versus a scrappy start-up, and we will also continue to hire for new positions. Both Graham Hill and Ken Rother will continue in their roles for a number of years at minimum and will be focused on pushing TreeHugger forward and building out new sites/initiatives under the Planet Green umbrella. Discovery should help broaden our staff's opportunities if they are interested and allow their work to reach a significantly larger audience.
I'd like to thank and congratulate all of the TreeHugger team as well as its readers and partners in helping us get to this point. This partnership is illustrative of us having created something truly great and we should all be proud of our contributions to it.
Environmentally, we're far from out of the woods yet, but it's my hope that significant dedication by companies like Discovery can help fuel the changes we need across business, politics and individuals. There's no silver bullet here, we need to confront this problem on all fronts and with speed. and media is a critical component in this
Onwards and upwards!
Graham Hill
ps Lots to come at Planet Green. Stay Tuned!
Sell Outs!!! But seriously congrats on the new deal, hopefully this will help spread the message to a way bigger audience.
I'm sorry, but things like these always make me sad. I hope you keep the same immediacy/closeness/lightness, energy and uncensored communication.
Sort of sad, I know it means that treehugger has become a huge success and this is what made it attractive to Discovery, but Treehugger was as it was, it made you feel part of it and proud to be part of it, not just part of a large corporation.
I do understand that Discovery will help the message grow, but does it have a heart?
It's all about the green.
The only way to get green out its niche and into the masses is the creation of media partnerships like this. Congrats to the TH team on their continued success!
Congratulations, lets hope they don't dope you, like fingers crossed they haven't doped their cycling team!
P
I think Discovery will help clean up the page. I hope they will cut the volume of ads, and a some of the ad content, such as GE. Tree hugger sold out a long time ago, look at all the ads on this page.
CONGRATS TREEHUGGER!!!!
I hope you use Discovery's resources to make me read this site even more often than I already do, hook me in I.V. style.
This change is not sad-- we who want to create change, have to bring awareness to as many people as possible, not just an existing niche audience. Theres no time to keep plugging at what we're all already doing-creating large scale change includes working with large scale organizations.
holler.
Talking to each other on these forums doesn't get anything out there to make larger changes. Unfortunately, I believe the TreeHugger forums are Preaching to the Choir.
A relationship with Discovery will open lines of communication to the masses, and that likely is a great thing.
All of the voices on the Treehugger forums will be able to have a larger influence.
Everyone who doubts this relationship is a bad thing, get out there and prove yourself wrong and let the masses know what you know.
Congrats to TreeHugger! Good luck, actually, you dont' need it, you'll do great!
matic
I agree with Amy. Gotta reach more people.
Hmmm I'm surprised people are not complaining like there was over other large companies buying out green brands.
"Hmmm I'm surprised people are not complaining like there was over other large companies buying out green brands."
Well, if Exxon was buying TH I'd be complaining. But Discovery? That seems like one of the best matches. They're not selling oil or cars, they are just a media platform to reach lots and lots of people, which is what TH wants to do.
Discovery Communications is very involved in "green" initiatives and will be launching a channel later this year called "Planet Green". By adding Treehugger to it's portfolio, the company I'm sure will help educate and info the masses about the environmental problems in the world and what we as consumers can do to improve our surroundings.
This is a shame. You should have taken a look at how Discovery/Animal Planet has treated Petfinder.com since they joined forces with Discovery, "to go much further and faster than it would have been able to alone".
So far all Discovery has done is plaster more ads on the site and redesign the whole site so they could get more ads in, but due to the new setup and excess scripting added to power those ads it effectively locks out those with older computers/browsers. Thats a shame since most of the people posting pets to Petfinder are rescues and shelters which have no money for new equipment.
Petfinder has had more downtime in the past 8 months since the buyout (as much as days at a time, a couple times now) than they have had in the past 6 years before that, since I have been a member, combined. That seems due to the pushes to get the new designs with more ad space up without proper testing. Then they just leave the site down for days till they get it fixed. Its a shame, because many of the pets being posted have only 3-5 days to be adopted or they die. So some ever even got a chance.
Discovery has not been good for Petfinder in any way that counts towards their actual goals. Sure they are probably making more money, but the pets are suffering. Which is a shame cause the Petfinder staff has always been some of the greatest, hardest working people you could ever meet, and they were making more of a difference in the animal welfare world than anyone else ever has. Now they seem to have their hands tied byt the big green wallet.
Good luck to you.
Congratulations, and maybe you can suggest Discovery to not leave so many lights on all night at their Silver Spring, Maryland headquarters?
Perhaps you'd like to buy Shedworking too? It's the obvious next step.
Hmmm I'm surprised people are not complaining like there was over other large companies buying out green brands.
I'm not surprised you act surprised and are complaining about the lack of complaints.
I'm pretty sure Discovery promotes a lot of non-environmentally friendly stuff: space exploration, monster machines, OCC, military weaponry, etc. Not to mention all the stuff that gets wasted on Mythbusters.
Treehugger hasn't been a very serious eco site anyway, more of a promoter of greenwashing.
What are you going to do with the $10 million?
The risk is that even if Discovery is a great partner now, it will be bought out by by Rupert Murdoch or some other ultra-conservative. Murdoch just won a bid to take over the Wall Street Journal and also owns the Fox network, Fox News channel, the 21st Century Fox movie studio, MySpace.com, the Times of London, the New York Post, the "American Idol" franchise, HarperCollins, TV Guide, The Weekly Standard, National Geographic television, and some satellite networks.
You just never know what will happen when you transfer control to a large corporate entity. Could be good, could be bad. Time will tell. Good luck Treehugger.
I've been reading this blog for a long time (years?) now, and I don't think I can imagine a better match than Treehugger and Discovery. Congrats to you, team, and I look forward to reading (and seeing) where this goes in the future!
Congrats TH Team. This will give you the powers to really take TH to a new level and I'm excited to see that.
Congrats on the merger! Onward and upward.
Now, kick some more butt and induldge us in how being a green consumer often means being a rich consumer.
I truly hope that Treehugger can continue to operate as it always has and continue to deliver news and ideas to keep the Green movement going.
I'm crossing my fingers for the staff and hope that their positions aren't threatened in any way, shape or form.
I'm also hoping that Discovery has good intentions and is going to help Treehugger gets its message out to the masses in a greater capacity instead of just trying to capitalize on the fact that it is extremely popular with the Green segment of our population and there are huge advertising opportunities because of it.
Whew...too much writing. Good luck Treehugger.
I hope this means that the Discovery Cycling Team will be using a hybrid for next years Tour de France. This recent years event was won by Contrador and in Third was another Team Discovery rider, Levi. I would love to see them become treehuggers, just imagine what changes could be made to the tour:
-Sigg water bottles
-Solar powered heart rate monitors and speedometers
-Recycled Helmets
-Fair Trade, Organic Bamboo Uniforms
-Re-using punctured tires for the Feeding Bag straps
-Offsetting the carbon created by the team travel
-Bio-Plastic Lance Armstrong Bracelets (haha)
-Solar Assisted Plug-In Prius??? Why Not?
-Demeter Certified Biodynamic Steroids? ha. We'll leave that one to the RaboBank Team.
Congrats Treehugger.com!
Ha! This is a laugh. if Discovery does to this site what they did to mythbusters I just can not be on it. I am on dial up and their sites load sooooooooooooooooo Slooooooooooooooow due to their heavy amounts of ads.
Mother earth news is rumored to be bought out by exxon, they have more ads related to gas powered mowers and tractors now but they still come out with green stories.
In the end treehugger will reflect what ever the CEO's of discovery want them to show and that will be that.
I hope it remains the same or gets better but i am a realist.
Environmentalism fades in and out off the radars of people minds. it has been doing so since Lady Bird Johnson it will probably fade again soon unless we kick it up a notch.
D~W
Most other corporations I would be worried. But discovery seems like it is committed to science and progress.
Just curious, did google approach you?
Just remember to disclose who owns you when talking about them ;).
I just looked at the petfinder.com website . . . there is one ad on the entire homepage. If that's what treehugger is going to look like, then I say bring Discover on!
Well, when a smaller company is bought by a larger one, there is always the chance of unwelcome changes. But Discovery seems about as decent as a large media company can be, so I am hopeful that this will work out.
One thing: Please don't let them redesign the site with massive amounts of Flash. Discovery seems to have an inordinate love of Flash, and it makes their site a completely useless, bandwidth-and-CPU-sucking waste of time.
Anyway, congrats and good luck!
Well, it all kind of makes me think of one of derrick jensens's premises,that civilization is not and can never be sustainable. How sustainable are computers? And TV's? Is there an endless supply of power and materials to make them? Technology is not sustainable. How many iPods and iPhones before we toxify just about everywhere. Who are we kidding? Enjoy the money, while the earth dies.
hope they find the treehugger job board useful as they find new employment as the robot overlords take over...
anonymous said: hope they find the treehugger job board useful as they find new employment as the robot overlords take over...
As the one TH employee with a background in (and abiding love for) robotics, I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. :)
(Man, everything is better with robots. The idea that there might be robots hiding somewhere in this just makes my day.)
awesome. i love discovery web content as much as treehugger; a match made in heaven!
This is awesome!! Discovery Channel offers excellent content, so does Treehugger...I am excited to see where this goes. Congradulations to all involved parties. This is a step in the right direction for the green movement.
If the green movement wants to have more a broader impact it must enlist the services of business due to its vastly superior resources.
Will it be a challenge to maintain their identity? I guess time will tell, but I'm not sure why Discovery would pay money for a top 20 blog and then turn it into just another corporate web site. I for one, don't look for any adverse impact on TreeHugger.
Congratulations to the Treehugger team! You obviously deserve it. Man to think that just a few years ago, this was just a small blog with a small collection of posts. Who would've thought back then!
treehugger are not selling out... they did that months back when posts like 'is bush a closet green' started to appear. i still come here everyday because TH is the best greenblog for somethings but its mainstream vision means substance is being diluted. i once rated the TH perspective but something seemed to happen when they increased wrting staff and switched to TH 2.0 website.
good luck... i still love you.
p.s. Celsias.com is the best greenblog!!!
p.s.s. how many lightbulbs does it take for a treehugger to save the world?
Much congrats and success to you guys on this venture.
Long overdue in my opinion, it will definitely bring the awareness to a much larger audience, not that 1.4 million was bad already!
P.S. Don't let the Bigwigs try to take control...one swift kick to the nuts will keep then in place!
www.myspace.com/freshmediainc
congrats graham.
Congratulations from all of us at AboutMyPlanet.com you've inspired many websites with your leadership :)
does that mean drinks are on treehugger?
no seriously, mainstream green is the way to spread the love.
BUT
i have to say this definitely pushes my big business buttons. how much media do the top 5 media companies own? is this kind of growth ever going to end? maybe business needs to be massively big to play in the increasingly global market. i realize there is potential for more impact when there is more capital. but this is my biggest question when it comes to creating a more sustainable world. and one that may remain a question for a long time.
any thoughts?
CONGRATULATIONS to the TH crew!
The Sundance Channel got a head start in becoming the premier "Green TV" channel but with the help of TH Discovery might just be the one to attain the lead.
Most importantly, this only goes to prove that the Green Movement is not just another fad or bubble, as some have predicted.
It's great to hear. Discovery seems to have a nice channel that I watch from time to time, so this sounds great. Getting bigger audiences.
Way better than just going towards a web-based company. Like Google. Or Yahoo! Or MSN.
Actually, MSN isn't too bad on the content side.
But at least you didn't sell yourself to a web-based only company. Because that would be too bad.
Hmm. We just didn't know what kind of green you all wanted, I guess.
We'd all agree: this marks a new era. Whether it be the era of Treecover or Coverhugger is what's at stake.
congrats to treehugger and discovery communications for making a great move!
the discovery channel is the only channel worth watching, imo.
For some reason, I think the negatives will outweigh the positives on this one. damn... I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
anyone recommend other gree blogs, with less ads and no corporate bias?
Congrats. It's great to see all the staff and bloggers at Treehugger recognized for wha