Insiders get the story behind Mongabay stories

What does it take to get a great story?

Sometimes quite a lot, and our team is eager to tell you theirs via the new Insider Content program.

Our team has amassed a long list of snake bites, attacks by parasites, flights from bandits and more in the course of bringing stories to Mongabay.com.

“Reporting from the field sometimes generates stories in its own right,” explains Mongabay’s Founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler. “Insider Content will tell the story behind the story: what it takes to get great reporting from nature’s frontline. You’ll learn about Mongabay’s origin story, scary close calls our team has had in the field, and what drives Mongabay reporters to do what they do.”

Editor Sue Palminteri on a wobbly pedestrian bridge in Nepal.

For a small monthly fee, members of the new Insider program get a first-hand, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce these stories. Every few weeks, we’ll publish a new members-only article that goes behind the reporting: the trials and tribulations of field reporting, personal travel accounts, photo essays, and more. The origin story of Mongabay is also available to members, ranging from Rhett’s recounting of childhood of rainforest adventures that sparked his nature appreciation, to his fascination with tropical frogs that followed.

The program also offers a new way for readers to directly support Mongabay’s non-profit conservation news reporting: increasingly readers are supporting independent publishers that they rely on to ensure their sustainability: the Guardian announced last month that they now have over one million global supporters who fund their content, which, like Mongabay is freely available to all.

See the list of benefits and membership levels here.

Here are some of the most recent Insider stories that members can enjoy:

+ The river of blood
+ A lucky child: Mongabay’s origin story
+ Face-to-face with what may be the last of the world’s smallest rhino, the Bornean rhinoceros

Learn more and start enjoying Insider content at mongabay.com/insider.

Founder Rhett Butler always travels with a big camera kit and has created tens of thousands of images that are regularly used to illustrate Mongabay stories, and which are also used for free by NGOs, other media outlets, academics, and government agencies to illustrate information about wildlife and the environment.