Congratulations to Grist on 10th Anniversary, new website design

One of the best and oldest environmental web sites turns 10 this month — no easy feat in the cut-throat online world where revenues can be quite hard to come by.

Founded in April 1999, Grist now reaches more than 800,000 unique visitors every month with its unique style — opinionated, intelligent, and funny.  It has been a great honor — and a source of many new readers — to be have my posts regularly republished there.

If you haven’t been to Grist in a while, take another look — they have redesigned their web site.  Here is their 10th anniversary press release announcing the changes:

Grist Launches New Website in Honor of 10th Anniversary
Web’s top environmental news and information site lets users personalize their news;
organizes content around politics, climate and energy, food, business, living green, and more

SEATTLE, WA (April 6, 2009) — Celebrating its decade-long success as the nation’s leading source for online environmental news and information, Grist today announced the launch of a newly redesigned website.

“We think of the new website as Grist’s 10th Anniversary present to its users,” said Chip Giller, Grist founder and CEO. “For more than a decade we’ve been serving up award winning environmental journalism spiked with a healthy dose of humor and irreverence. With the release of the new site, that same great content will be wrapped in a design that is fun, easier to navigate, and more customizable.”

While maintaining the editorial tone and levity that users have come to expect, Grist’s redesigned website includes a number of important enhancements in functionality and interface, aimed at making it more engaging and easier to navigate. The new site is better organized, more customizable, and more interactive.

Improvements include the following:

“¢ Top news stories will now be easier to find; topic pages and sorting features will help users quickly locate the content areas they care most about, including politics, climate and energy, food, business, living green, and more.

“¢ Increased use of video content, like GristTV’s Ask Umbra, will add texture and context to the site, supplementing written news and feature stories on a more frequent basis.

“¢ Users will be able to customize their Grist experience more than ever, with tools enabling them to follow their favorite writers, stories, and topics.

“¢ The new site will also encourage and promote user action and engagement — helping users get involved, connect, and speak up through personal profile pages.

Kudos to Grist for a great 10 years!