MNN - Mother Nature Network

I'm going to get all meta here for a second.

As many of you probably know, uber-eco-mag Plenty Magazine, and their website PlentyMag.com, shut down last month due to the slumping market and depressed outlook in the magazine industry. It's a scary world out there right now, especially in green media (though I was excited to read that Inhabitat closed on a funding round of $500k) and I was sad to see Plenty fall victim to the times.

A lot of people wondered what would happen to PlentyMag.com's online content and users.

Well, I found out this morning- they are coming here to MNN.

Plentymag.com's RSS feeds are being re-channeled with MNN content, their newsletter subscribers will start recieving a special Plenty version of the MNN newsletter, and it sounds like some of their content will start to migrate over to our site.

Here's the full email from Mark Spellun, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Plenty.

Dear Friends of Plenty,

Like all of you, we were saddened when Plenty folded earlier this year. The economic climate that has claimed so many media outlets, pulled us under as well. We've had a bit of good news emerge, though, and wanted to share this with you all first. The Mother Nature Network(MNN.com), a new environmental site founded by Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, is going to be a new source of green news for Plentymag.com readers. They'll be creating environmental content similar to the best items that we had at our site and making it available to you. MNN is run by an experienced group of environmental journalists who will be excellent stewards of our mission. Some of their offerings you may value:

* Peter Dykstra (until late last year, executive producer of CNN's Science, Tech and Weather Unit) writes the site's Media Mayhem, Green States, and Political Habitat columns.

* Karl Burkart, an expert in the field of green social networking, covers the latest in Green Technology from new top 10 green-tech events in 2009 to a new clean-energy 'super highway,' in Southern CA to the paperless post office of the future.

* Shea Gunther blogs about politics, energy, and the earth's resources. Recent postings include a look at compelling green start-ups, a guide to building your own wind turbine, and timely topics such as the Coen Brothers' new ad on the boondoggle of clean coal.

So here's what happens next. We're going to make the switch-over in several steps:

* For those of you who visited plentymag.com and subscribed to our RSS feeds, you'll now begin receiving your news feed from MNN. When the switch-over begins, you'll receive an original note in your feed that describes the great content and video feeds that you'll now have access to.

* Our website newsletter subscribers will now receive a special Plenty version of MNN newsletters that will give you an insider guide to their site & also take your suggestions and ideas on how to make their environmental site even more valuable to you.

* And many of the topics that you loved to read about on the website will now start to appear on MNN. Based on your feedback and requests, they'll begin creating these articles.

No one wanted to see the demise of Plentymag.com but we feel lucky to have found a media partner who recognized the strong readership and content that we and you produced. We hope to see you at the Mother Nature Network. And thank you for your support and loyalty though the years.

A final thought: We believe you're going to find the Mother Nature Network to be a valuable source of information. But if you prefer not to receive further mailings, you can easily opt out by clicking on the "SafeUnsubscribe" link at the bottom of this email.

Sincerely, Mark Spellun Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Plentymag.com