25 Interesting Things About the Good News Network

1. The website GoodNewsNetwork.org went LIVE on Labor Day, 1997.
2. The biggest spike in traffic occurred on September 11, after terrorists attacked NYC and Washington, DC in 2001.
3. The second biggest spike in traffic occurred in September 2008 following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the tanking of Wall Street.
4. I was described in a Washington Times report as a cross between Deepak Chopra and Ann Landers.
5. Colin Powell sent me a note in 1998 telling me to keep up the good work.
6. In the last decade, three of the top good news stories about the environment were thanks to the Bush Administration: They created the two largest marine preserves in the world and set tougher standards for diesel engines.
7. In 2006, I launched a weekly email newsletter to share the Top 10 Good News of the Week.
8. I was a panelist on a BBC World Service discussion about government’s potential for using good news as a way to white wash the truth.
9. From 1997-2003 I published an 8-page printed newsletter for around 100 paid subscribers — mostly family and friends — which was distributed free to prisons, a juvenile detention center and homeless shelter. Download the September 11, 2001 Commemorative edition in PDF.
10. I first had the idea for a ‘Good News Network’ TV show in 1982, my first summer working in TV news in Washington, DC.
11. You can find all the good news stories that took place on your birthday by checking out the ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY column on our homepage.
12. GNN makes a small profit and has never stopped trying to prove that “Good news DOES sell”. [We also e sell “GOOD HAPPENS ” designs on bumper stickers, tees, hoodies, bibs and tote bags at CafePress.com/goodnewsnetwork].
13. A survey of 687 users of the Good News Network in April, 2008 revealed that 67 percent would pay for the content.
14. After more than ten years as a free service, the Good News Network transitioned to a membership site on May 11, 2008. It became a free service again January 1, 2014.
15. 26 percent of subscription purchasers chose to voluntarily pay more than the minimum amount under our “Pay what you can afford” policy (choose either $47.00 or $97.00, instead of the lower option of $2 per month – for the same benefits).
16. I was a stay-at-home mom when I created the website with kids ages 7, 5 and 3. Today the kids are 21, 18 and 16.
17. The Good News Network has been featured on the CBS Evening News by Katie Couric, NPR’s All Things Considered, in Women’s World, The Washington Post, Newsday, Whole Life Times, American Journalism Review, along with many major newspapers, and was named to Rolling Stone’s Hot List in 2009. (Photo, right, appeared in Woman’s World, 1997)
18. The most helpful motivation for me in starting the Network came from a series of ten lessons based on Mary Manin Morrissey’s book Building Your Field of Dreams.
19. GNN retains the #1 position on Google (for searches of “good news” and “inspiring news”) thanks to thousands of incoming links posted on pages around the internet for decades.
20. The first story ever submitted by a reader was written by my mother-in-law, about a dog saving a puppy in a drain pipe, entitled Annie to the Rescue.
21. CNN founder Ted Turner told me in 2006 that he thought a good news program could be successful. (Why he didn’t succeed with such a segment, when they produced it early-on for CNN, remains a mystery.)
22. The site was ‘Made on a Mac’ since 1997.
23. We have a YouTube channel: GoodNewsNetworkTV
24. We Skype with the username, GeriWC.
25. I finally secured the US trademark for “Good News Network” in 2010, thanks to a Florida Attorney who volunteered pro bono to help resubmit the claim originally denied in 2002.

(Updated in 2018 – originally published 2/22/2009)