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January 8, 2008 
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The "Fourth Estate" in 2007: The Year the Media Went Wild for Green
The barrage of coverage began in January 2007 with a BusinessWeek cover on the glory of going green. Over the year, every major business and news publication ran a cover story on green and/or green business specifically. Science magazines jumped on the topic or course, but even major lifestyle pubs (Vanity Fair, Town & Country) dove in. The highlight for me — and arguably the pinnacle of the media bubble — was the Sports Illustrated cover last spring (more on my take on this here.)
But with all things frothy and bubbly, they must come to an end. Let me be clear: The green business movement is anything but a bubble — it's here to stay. But no media coverage like we saw last year can continue; editors can't run the same cover story over and over. So BusinessWeek was the one to start the "yeah, but..." stories with its "Little Green Lies" cover, arriving just nine months after January's ode to the green corporation. The article had some salient points, but also a few problems, including the fact that it had the magazine completely contradicting itself from the previous cover. But the change in tone is vital for companies to understand. Funnily, it was BusinessWeek, again, that just forecasted a Green Backlash as the first of their top ten predictions for 2008 — can't imagine why they'd say that. Flip-flopping aside, the change in tone is vital for companies to understand. The business press will be looking for the "gotcha" stories now (the Wall Street Journal always was). 
So you need to manage your message and any environmental claims carefully. Don't rush out with a splashy green statement without vetting it and making sure it's true, relevant, and important to some part of your customer base (see Terrachoice's pithy take on the Six Sins of Greenwashing).
In this issue we take a quick look at the ways media companies are tackling green, from increasing coverage in general to launching dedicated — and expensive — new magazines and TV channels. Ironically, media companies are not particularly far along in greening their own operations — they've fallen into the trap of "we don't have a smokestack, so we don't have environmental issues." Some are starting to understand their own direct footprint (upstream to the impact of paper mills, for example), and a few are leveraging their larger role as influencers of customer behavior through their content. But whether or not media companies are lagging on CSR, they are shaping the public and corporate agenda in a profound way. It's important to look at how these players operate, both as a way to understand the risks they pose, and to uncover opportunities to use them to get your story out and build your brand. Remember one thing: Media companies are businesses like any other, and if they are creating special sections or new media properties, they believe the ad and consumer markets are there to support them — a powerful vote for the reality of the Green Wave. ~Andrew Winston, Founder, Winston Eco-Strategies, Co-author, Green to Gold (Read his "Eco-Advantage" blog here.) Comments or questions? Join Andrew and other readers online at the Eco-Strategies Forum. Green Business "Tips" 
As one media study says, "more than half of all the green business stories published since 2000 were printed in 2007 alone." And that's just business section stories — the data shows that sustainability as a topic across all content areas has ballooned as well. But this measurement is an understatement. Take the Wall Street Journal — almost daily there's a story that has green business ramifications, even if it doesn't say "green" or "sustainability." They might cover the ethanol boom and the effect on corn prices, or talk about the economics of mining as resources get harder to find and community pressures rise. Green business is just becoming business.
The Rise of the Special Report 
Going beyond the general increase in coverage, many media properties have created recurring special sections focused on green. The New York Times has published three "Business of Green" sections (see the International Herald Tribune's site with this content here) in the past 20 months. And the Wall Street Journal, never to be outdone, ran three sections in 2007 alone. This kind of special coverage raises the profile of the topic from niche to mainstream.
Dedicated Green Coverage at NBC 
NBC Universal went a step further with its week of green, which was wide-reaching, from CNN news coverage to green stock picks on CNBC to primetime shows building in green story lines. The very funny "30 Rock," which takes place at a fictionalized NBC, introduced GreenZo, a character that was supposed to be the GE/NBC mascot (played as a scolding taskmaster by David Schwimmer from "Friends"), and called on Al Gore to play Al Gore as green superhero. The week could have seemed like purely a gimmick (which of course it was in part), but it was extremely well done and made the case effectively that green is a part of all aspects of life. But it was a schrewd business move for NBC, which saw the opportunity to position itself with advertisers and consumers and took it.
New Green Media Properties 
The ultimate vote of confidence in a topic from a media company is a new media property, such as a magazine, website, or TV channel (even industry trade magazines are starting green editions). I spent much of my business career in the media business and I know that these launches can easily cost tens of millions of dollars. These are not small endeavors, and the media landscape is crowded already. But we've seen a new channel from Discovery Communications and a run of new magazines like Plenty, Verdant and, I might argue, Fast Company, which has shifted over the last year to a very heavy green content bias, from regular coverage like this story to posting scorecards on companies' triple bottom line performance. Dedicated news and content web properties — like MSN's new portal, GreenBiz, Environmental Leader, and of course our own SLM — have cropped up and received venture capital dollars to support growth. Not all media properties survive (remember the Internet boom mags Red Herring or Business 2.0?) but many will last and continue to influence people (Wired is going strong). The green media winners will continue to change the landscape and influence what consumers and business customers are hearing every day.
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Save the Date for SB08! Mark your calendar and plan now to join your peers at Sustainable Brands '08, where we'll explore together the latest in innovation for sustainable brands. The event will be held in California at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Resort from June 2-5, 2008. Eco-Advantage Salon Tour! Andrew's Eco-Advantage Salon Tour is coming to a city near you. Watch here for information on our next locations, dates, and participants. New to SLM Sustainable Business Newsletters? Check out these other targeted topics and keep yourself up to speed on how to drive value through sustainable innovation throughout your organization. Find Peers and Partners If you haven't already joined the fastest growing online sustainable business community, create a profile now and start connecting. Books & Media "No executive can afford to ignore the green wave sweeping the business world. [Co-authors] Esty and Winston show how to make sustainability a core element of strategy-and profit from it." -Chad Holliday, CEO, DuPont Advertise on SLM! Become a Sustainable Life Media advertiser or sponsor and reach thousands of business leaders looking for product or service solutions to help them build their sustainability story. Click here to learn more. Have a story you want told? Send it to us! Solution Providers |
This work is licensed under a CreativeCommons License. Copyright Sustainable Life Media Inc. 2008
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