Web’s environmental news leader brings award-winning green advice column to new video channels and a wider online audience
SEATTLE, WA (September 30, 2008) – Grist.org, the nation’s leading online source of environmental news and information, today announced the launch of GristTV’s Ask Umbra, a new web video series that will broaden the reach and influence of Grist’s popular and long-standing advice columnist, Umbra Fisk.
Ask Umbra will make its official video debut on September 30, 2008, with new episodes to follow once every two weeks. Modeled after Grist’s wry, no-nonsense advice column by the same name, each Ask Umbra video episode will provide substantive and light-hearted advice on a range of everyday dilemmas facing eco-minded consumers looking to green their daily routines. The short form videos will be no longer than three minutes each, and can be viewed at www.grist.org/gristTV/umbra/ .
“Grist.org is excited to announce the launch of GristTV,” said Grist founder and CEO Chip Giller. “Umbra has long been one of our most read and beloved columns, so it makes perfect sense that we launch our new endeavor by bringing her written words to ‘life’ for the web video age.”
Although Grist has been publishing video interviews with high profile news-makers for the past year or more, Ask Umbra on GristTV marks Grist’s first foray into producing original entertaining, “how-to” videos for the web.
In the premier episode, host Umbra Fisk will focus her attention on commuting by bike, advising viewers on the easiest and safest ways to green their daily commute. Future episodes will provide guidance on topics ranging from green cleaning, to avoiding toxics in everyday plastics, to the age-old cloth vs. disposable diaper dilemma.
Published twice weekly on Grist.org, Ask Umbra is one of Grist’s most widely read regular columns, and has provided answers to more than 500 reader questions since its debut in 2002. Each week Umbra responds to reader inquiries with astute advice on all things green with an informative, witty and irreverent tone. The New York Times recently described Ask Umbra as “a twice-weekly column that reads like the love child of ‘Miss Manners’ and ‘Car Talk,’” and “a trailblazer in the field of eco-advice columnists.”
About Grist
With a fresh spin on environmental news and views, Grist.org informs, inspires, and links America’s next generation of green activists. Founded in April 1999, Grist has developed the most recognizable voice in environmental journalism: funny, opinionated, and intelligent. Grist offers in-depth reporting, news analysis, opinions, and practical advice—all tailored to inform, entertain, provoke, and encourage its readers to think creatively about environmental problems and solutions. Each month, Grist reaches more than 750,000 unique individuals through its website and e-mails, and it has enjoyed particular success among readers in their 20s and 30s. Through syndication arrangements with other media outlets such as MSN, Huffington Post, Washingtonpost.com and Yahoo, Grist is reaching an even broader audience that extends into the millions. Grist has been featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Vanity Fair, and dozens of other major media outlets worldwide, and was recently ranked as a top green website by both Time Magazine and The London Guardian.
