All the Positive News in One Place: The Good News Network

A Platform for Positive News

At insidewink we love to “share the good”, so when we discovered the Good New Network and its founder Geri Weis-Corbley, we became big fans.

Geri is a visionary. She knew 20 years ago that an outlet and platform for positive stories was needed in the landscape of online media, so she created the Good News Network website. She’s written a book of her favorite news stories called “ And now, the Good News”, so we thought it was a perfect time to ask her some questions about herself, her journey and GNN.

“Millions of people turn to the Good News Network when things are bad.”

—Geri Weis-Corbley

Geri, you are the founder of a premiere good news network – could you tell us how you began this endeavor?

Yes, I’m the founder of Good News Network, and 30 years ago I came up with the idea. I was in the television and news business in Washington, D.C., covering the White House and Capital Hill as a freelancer for companies like CNN, and right away I thought that there should be a “good news” show – but my colleagues told me,

“Good news doesn’t sell.”

And I didn’t believe them at all, because I saw Oprah and other things – Reader’s Digest, with their Heroes Stories, and they were number one in their field. So, I always kept that in the back of my head and thought that someone should have a place where all the good news is in once place so people can find it. 

Continue reading or listen to the full interview here…

What did you do before the Good News Network? Did your “old job” have some influence on your current position?

So, fast forward, I left my job to raise a family. And my oldest was 6 (year’s old), and I remember the moment he was sitting at the table and NPR was playing on the radio, the news; there was a story on about the Bosnian War, and rapes, and I thought, “I wonder when he’s gonna start, get to the point, the age, where he’s gonna start hearing these things?”

So, I said “I gotta make this Good News Network.” And by that time, 1997, the World Wide Web had come along, so I decided to make a website. 

I had to teach myself how to make a website, and I made it myself on my computer, and I launched it. I had to conquer my fears. I was afraid it wouldn’t work, and “what would people say?”, and so that was a real learning experience – going ahead and doing something even though you’re afraid of it. 

Where do you find your positive news stories?

We get our stories by mostly checking the web, but we get a lot of submissions from our readers. We have millions of readers and they send us their own good news stories, so we get a lot of unique things that no one else has – and sometimes they’ve gone quite viral around the world after they’ve first been told on GNN.

In a world that seems inundated with “not-such-good-news”, how do you stay positive?

I have always lived in a beautiful place — if I look out the windows of my home I have a beautiful view. That’s one of the thing’s that has kept me positive through the years. I have a beautiful family, and that’s always something to be grateful for. 

Who or what inspires you?

I love spiritual teachers. I listen to a whole variety of them; Eckhart Tolle about how to stay in the moment and be mindful, and also The Law of Attraction, which sort of plays in to the Good News Network in that if you focus on the good, you can get a lot of good coming back to you.

What have you learned about yourself doing this work?

Doing this work, I’ve learned how to focus on the good in my own life. Instead of what are the kids doing wrong, what are they doing right? And to focus on the good news, and that I also learned, by the way, that I can can complete things and follow through even when I have fear about them. 

Do you have a daily routine? Could you tell us a little bit about it?

Yes, I have a gratitude journal in the morning. I write all the things I am thankful for, even if they haven’t come about yet. I feel how I feel if they come about and I write, “Thank you for my healthy body, even if I’m not feeling so healthy. So I affirm and feel grateful for what i am creating in the moment. 

What is your greatest achievement? What are you most proud of?

I think the overall — Overall, I have created a legacy, and that is the Good News Network. I’m super happy that it’s a community on Facebook, and that there are millions of people who turn to the Good News Network when things are bad. We had a spike in traffic on 9/11, in the following days we had a spike after Wall Street crashed, and when the recession started in 2008/2009, and a spike with the Las Vegas shootings, and now Covid.

It happens every time, people want to focus on the good when they see everything — when they are hit with a barrage of negative news day after day.  

And your book – “And Now The Good News…”

But I am also really happy about the book! I had wanted to collect my favorite stories, because the Good News Network has 24,000 stories published on it, and I had always wanted to put together a little book where I featured my favorites.

So I marked my 20 year anniversary of Good News Network with a book, and it’s a beautiful little paperback with my favorite stories in it. I was really proud of that, and it’s still for sale online for $12.95, with free shipping! Haha.

What’s new for you and GNN this year?

During this lockdown (Covid-19 Quarantine), I did another thing that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time; because my background is in television, I’ve always wanted to do a little TV pilot of a “good news” show, and so I gathered up a couple of actors and we created this pilot episode of GNN TV: Quarantine Edition. It’s a humorous, amusing, look at the top 10 stories of the week. It’s on Youtube, and people really loved it, it made you laugh. It’s kind of like The Daily Show, only featuring/focusing on good news.

I would love to find a celebrity partner that could help me get this thing produced regularly. It’s right now on Youtube, Facebook, and our website. GNN TV

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

We also have a free app – that would be the one last thing I would say is that we have 10’s of thousands of people using our free app so they can, when they’re in the airport, or anywhere, get the good news for free. 

Thank You, Geri!

Check out the Good News Network’s positive news stories on their website here