A Note from Leo

Happy New Year!

Thank you for being here, and for the words of encouragement I get in response to Not All News Is Bad (lovingly referred to by some as “NANIB” 🙂 ). It’s all very much appreciated, and is — to me — an additional source of good news I get to see every day. 🙂

As we move forward into 2018 I want to share some thoughts with you; specifically my plans for the future of Not All News Is Bad, a little of its history, a thought or two on how you can help, and finally a few words about the name.

Future

Short and sweet: Not All News Is Bad (and its older sibling HeroicStories) continue to be needed as much, if not more than ever. I know I need them.

While they both remain a kind of “background project” to my day job, they’re both very important to me, and as such will continue as long as I’m able to do so. My biggest challenge with NANIB, honestly, is selecting which of several different stories I find each to day feature. That’s a good problem to have.

I don’t plan any changes, other than perhaps permission to occasionally skip a day when life gets too hectic. (I think I’ve only missed two days since starting NANIB. Not bad.)

So, full steam ahead!

Past

I started NANIB as a project just for myself. In response to the overwhelmingly depressing news of each day, I felt the need to remind myself that there is a lot of good out there — you just won’t find it in featured prominently in major news outlets or social media streams.

I set myself a goal to find something positive, once a day. It turns out it wasn’t at all difficult — great news stories are out there, if you only take the time to find them. I started to share what I found on my personal Facebook stream with the hashtag #notallnewsisbad.

Being the internet publisher that I am, on a lark I found that the domain “notallnewsisbad.com” happened to be available, and in February of last year the website went live. Add automated social media posting (the NANIB Facebook page and my personal Facebook and Twitter) and email notification (you can sign up on the Not All News Is Bad home page) and the rest, as they say, is history.

How you can help

To be clear, NANIB remains a personal project that I do for my own let’s call it “mental health”. It’s important to me that I see explicit positivity in the world every day. As the NANIB tagline says its “an antidote to everything else”.

You don’t have to, and I’m not asking — I’m happy simply sharing NANIB with you — but if you’re interested the most common ways you can help include:

• Shares. This is probably the single best way you can help: share Not All News Is Bad. If you find a story particularly touching or meaningful, share it with your friends or via social media. Encourage them to follow or subscribe. I know I’m not the only one who can use a daily reminder.
• Story suggestions. I love these, because they often come from sources I’m not aware of myself. My only request is that they be recent (say within a couple of weeks), from legitimate news sources, preferably not video-only, and ideally not only on Facebook (though I occasionally make exceptions).
• Money. I get asked about this from time to time. NANIB doesn’t cost a lot to run, mostly because it runs on servers and uses tools that I already pay for through that day job. I don’t have anything set up specifically for NANIB, so if you just can’t resist a need to throw money my way you could become a patron (of the day job), or just buy me coffee. Neither are necessary, but both are very much appreciated.

About the name

I occasionally get asked about the name — specifically my use of the word “bad” in Not All News Is Bad. The concern is that by using the word “bad” I’m bringing attention to that word instead of what we’re really promoting: good.

The pragmatic reason “good news” is already taken, all over. It’s difficult to stand out among a variety of web sites who all proclaim good news of one sort or another. Even more practical, all the internet domains containing it are taken (or up for auction at exorbitant prices. 🙂 )

But more importantly I think “Not All News Is Bad” captures many people’s reaction to our current stream of daily news. It feels like everything is bad news, but it’s not. It’s something that we need to be reminded of, daily. Popular evidence to the contrary, Not All News Is Bad.

My goal is simply to remind myself of that little fact, every day.

And share it with you.

Here’s to a peaceful 2018, full of hopeful, positive news.