Publishing history of the Good News Network

By Good News Network Friday, February 03, 2006

About Us - About Us

WHO

Geri Weis-Corbley is the editor and publisher of the Good News Network®. Her site is #1 on Google, in its 14th year of delivering positive news online, serving almost a half million pages of good news per month. With 20 years of experience in TV and online news media, she is the author of hundreds of articles on a variety of topics. Geri has spoken in public, on TV and radio, about the benefits of a regular dose of “news to enthuse”.

Geri first conceived of the Good News Network® (abbreviated GNN, like CNN) in 1982, while working in TV news in Washington, D.C., freelancing for companies like CNN. She left her career in television to raise a family at home during the 1990's, and that’s when the World Wide Web came to life and she decided to create an uplifting positive news website.

WHEN

In 1997, she could stand it no longer. The declining state of the U.S. news media and the rising tide of the Internet combined to compel her into action. She bought some software and created the online edition of the Good News Network, premiering in August 1997.

WHAT (What else happened?)

She designed, wrote and uploaded weekly good news to the site for six years. A bimonthly printed newsletter, Some Good News, earned 75 paid subscribers.

A treatment for a weekly TV magazine news show and radio pilot for series of two-minute segments were produced, pitched to Hollywood, then set aside.

The number of visitors to the Web site jumped in a salient spike on 9/11 and the following day in 2001, when terrorists attacked the United States. (Commemorative 9/11 Edition, pdf format)

WHERE (Where’d she go in 2003?)

In 2003, Geri left the Good News Network on an 18-month sabbatical to work on a presidential campaign, or two. All during this sabbatical — even through September 2005 — GoodNewsNetwork.org was visited nearly 1,000 times a day, even without the benefit of any new content, for 18 months.

WHY (Why did she engage in politics and then return to the GN Network?)

"I dove into politics for the same reason I created the GN Network. I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to try to make a difference to my country when I saw it veering sharply from wiser paths.

But while I made inroads with my grassroots work, I couldn't help but notice that politics is mostly a negative business. Its very nature is divisive and seems to direct our focus onto the worst in people (opponents) ...

In our grassroots campaign, though, I experienced a tremendous outpouring of camaraderie from people young and old who, like me, had never been involved in politics before. It was spurred on by anger, yes, like the GN Network had been, but it was mostly a joy-filled effort infused with positive thinking, rather than negative.

Many, many Americans of every stripe appreciated the way we talked to them — on train platforms, sidewalks, libraries, and doorways — with respect, like citizens, rather than consumers.

However, I gladly returned to work on the GN Network with a goal to bring compassion back into our discourse. Instead of polarizing society into two camps (which politics necessarily must), we instead focus on the commonality of human experience, infusing both sides with the eagerness to overcome adversity and improve the human condition. We will nurture the instinct for community and cooperation over competition and tribalism."

HOW (How is the past relevant to the future of GNN-i?)

Working on all aspects of communications in the high-tech campaign world of 2003–04 imparted a vast array of knowledge to Geri along with ideas about how to build an exciting online community that empowers its members and elicits pure joy.

"In an 'Aha moment' I realized that community is what the Good News Network was missing. Community will be the key to creating my success on the internet. And if Charles Schultz’s Linus were here, he'd say... 'Community is what the world is all about, Charlie Brown.'"