Elephant Journal turns 17 today.

6 years in print, 11 years online.

A national, ecoprinted, USA-printed magazine with a high sell-through rate available in bookstores and Whole Foods etc across the country.

3.6 million readers/month, #1 in US twice for #green content on Twitter, 8 million fans on 60 pages on Facebook (MSNBC, by contrast, despite corporate backing and budget, has 2.2 million).

When I started, I was 28 years old–now I’m 44, nearly 45. But not much has changed: I’m typing this on my laptop from a cafe after having dropped off my Redford at our downtown Ele HQ, having read NY Times in bed for an hour. It’s a good town, a good life, my only real ache of failure is that, still, I have been unable to contribute much too all those working and playing to bend the arc of history toward justice.

But that should change, this year: our Ecosystem is nearly fully formed, transforming us from a huge site into a small platform, allowing us to step laterally out of the way of Google/Youtube and Facebook/Instagram, which have gobbled up 80-90% of all ad dollars from quality journalism, which is dying unless you actively read and subscribe to it.

So now we’ll become a mindful, ethical, indie social media—a platform for those who care to connect.

If you’d like to give us a birthday present, please subscribe to Elephant, and read it, and get our newsletter. It makes all the difference in our year—our 27 hard-working staff is the best I’ve ever had, and our paid writers and editors work hard for you, you, you every day, day after day.

May we all be of benefit!

For Elephant’s Story, plus a video, click here.