Before establishing Green Prophet, Kloosterman was completing a Master’s degree at the University of Toronto. One summer break from studies led Kloosterman to her life-changing backpacking trip to the Middle East, which drove her to enter journalism.
Kloosterman reported for both Israeli and American media outlets, but found that she could not spend enough time covering her favourite topic: the environment. “The issues that I wanted to cover seemed lost in the hum of American news,” Kloosterman reflected.
Green Prophet was founded in 2007, which proved to be a propitious time to establish a magazine about sustainability. “This was at a time when there was a massive boom in the renewable energy sector,” she said. “We grew exponentially.”
In those initial years, Green Prophet thrived as an organisation while covering hot topics like clean tech. Over time, however, the outlet’s editorial focus has shifted towards the grassroots and social aspects of sustainability. Green Prophet’s subscribers can read plenty of intriguing articles about preserving time-honoured traditions, in addition to environmental stories.
Over the past 14 years, Green Prophet has supported staff writers and contributors from a wide range of backgrounds. Financially, the magazine relies on a combination of advertising revenue and grants. Kloosterman indicated that Green Prophet would benefit greatly from a large corporate sponsorship, which would facilitate hiring reporters across the Middle East and North Africa region.
Unsurprisingly, Green Prophet has not escaped the problems faced by media organisations across the world. Kloosterman points out that, when Green Prophet began, most readers still paid for subscriptions to media sources. Today, Green Prophet and other independent outlets struggle with dwindling resources and competition from addictive social media content.
Despite these challenges, Kloosterman still loves the feeling of Green Prophet helping to launch a budding entrpreneur’s career through media exposure. “It makes me proud to see when young impact companies we’ve covered suddenly take off into the world and get funded,” she said.
Learn more about Green Prophet through the website.
Photos courtesy of Green Prophet
