WPNI Launches Green ‘Magazine’

Tapping into the growing interesting in all things “green” and sustainable, WashingtonPost Newsweek Interactive (WPNI) has launched magazine-style site Sprig. (Here’s the NY Times piece on the launch.) The site targets women and rises somewhat out of the flames of the now defunct “Organic Style” magazine. Two of the former editors are on board.

There are lots of interesting things about this site, but the most interesting for purposes of this post is perhaps the fact that this is a newspaper publisher setting up an online only publication to expand into new markets and opportunities.

Looking at it purely as a “vertical,” there’s something of a model here for other newspaper publishers: build content rich destinations that will attract both advertisers and users. The “pushback” to my suggestion is that arguably few newspaper organizations are in the same position as WPNI with 250 dedicated employees. But it probably doesn’t take 250 dedicated employees to pursue a verticals strategy.

Sprig is not the first such online only effort by WPNI, but the first it has created on its own. The company also runs online news magazine Slate and BudgetTravelOnline.

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