- In response to a growing need for timely, credible, accessible environmental reporting, Mongabay has launched its Newswire Desk, specialized in creating short, written and multimedia content to reach new audiences.
- The Newswire Desk has a mandate to use plain, direct language to break through jargon, spark curiosity and quickly identify how people’s daily lives are connected to the environmental issues Mongabay covers in-depth.
- To reach new audiences, the desk responds quickly to emerging developments, condenses long-form reports into concise updates, and adapts stories for mobile and social media use.
- The desk has already shown strong results by expanding production, increasing readership, and demonstrating real-world impact throughout academic and advocacy circles.
With information moving faster than ever, the public’s need for credible, accessible environmental reporting has never been greater. In response, Mongabay has launched its Newswire Desk, specializing in short, written and multimedia content that brings news from nature’s frontline to non-specialist audiences.
“Improving access to information isn’t only accomplished by publishing online for free. It’s achieved by providing information that satisfies audiences’ needs and adapts to their constraints,” says Willie Shubert, Mongabay’s executive editor and VP of programs. “The purpose of the Newswire Desk is to meet people where they are and inspire their curiosity to learn more.”
The Newswire Desk enables Mongabay to cover significantly more news about environmental science, the ecosystems people interact with daily, and the links between current events and Nature. “The Newswire Desk has a mandate to use plain, direct language to break through jargon and quickly identify how people’s daily lives are connected to the environmental issues Mongabay covers in depth,” Shubert says. “It only takes a couple of minutes to read a short article and we envision the Newswire will become a starting point that welcomes people to discover all that Mongabay has to offer.”
The people behind Mongabay’s Newswire
Currently, three of Mongabay’s five bureaus publish short news articles regularly. Mongabay’s Global English bureau was the first to adopt the format, in July 2024, coinciding with the launch of Mongabay’s new website design. Behind the desk is a globally distributed team of eight editors, reporters and program directors from across Mongabay’s newsroom who keep stories moving each day. Leading the Global English bureau’s output from opposite sides of the globe are Newswire editors Bobby Bascomb, based in Costa Rica, and Shreya Dasgupta, based in India.
“Editing the Newswire is incredibly rewarding work. It allows me to highlight the most important environmental stories of our time and share them with readers around the world,” Bascomb says. “It’s a quick and reliable way to catch up on some of the most important — and often under-the-radar — environmental stories of our time.”
The Newswire serves as a bridge to Mongabay’s classic in-depth investigations, providing readers with a credible snapshot without compromising substance. “Mongabay is known for its excellent long-form and investigative reporting, but some readers may be stretched for time and wish to consume short news that’s also well-reported and researched and delivered in a timely manner,” Dasgupta says. “The Newswire fills that gap.”
For both editors, the demands of this brand of environmental journalism are personally meaningful. “The global environmental challenges we face can feel overwhelming at times, but working on the Newswire feels like a proactive way to be part of the solution,” Bascomb says. “I hope our readers also feel empowered to work toward positive outcomes in their communities.”
“I’ve previously been a staff writer at Mongabay, and have learnt a lot about environmental reporting from the editors here,” Dasgupta says. “Now, as a Newswire editor myself, I’ve enjoyed applying those skills and standards to shape Mongabay’s shortform news.”
Reaching new, broader audiences
Beyond producing timely updates, the Newswire helps Mongabay connect with broader and more diverse audiences. Its short, accessible format introduces readers to investigations while enabling partnerships that expand coverage and syndication across multiple languages, particularly for regions such as Africa with high linguistic diversity.
To reach these audiences, the desk responds quickly to emerging developments, condenses long-form reports into concise updates, and adapts stories for mobile and social media use. This model also opens future capacity to deliver environmental journalism in regional languages and to communities in environmentally vulnerable regions.
“A Newswire story is always under 500 words, so we ensure that each short focuses on one or two well-researched and reported key points,” Dasgupta says. “This allows our readers to quickly grasp the essentials amid their busy day and later return for Mongabay’s more in-depth coverage on the same subject.”
Impact
How tapir toilets become buffets & boost global awareness of forest biodiversity via Mongabay
The Newswire Desk immediately began driving impact. A July 2024 report about lowland tapir latrines in Brazil revealed an underappreciated ecological asset and sparked widespread attention in the media and from Hollywood.
Dasgupta’s article, based on new research led by Laís Lautenschlager from the University of Miami, revealed that communal latrines created by lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) in Brazil’s Carlos Botelho State Park are not only defecation sites, but key ecological hubs. The study reaffirmed that tapirs support forest regeneration by dispersing seeds, but it went further by showing how their latrines also help feed other species, including Brazilian squirrels and several rainforest bird species, demonstrating an often-overlooked aspect of species interdependence in tropical forests.
Following Mongabay’s publication, the story quickly gained unexpected traction. Paulo Brando, a tropical ecologist at the Yale School of the Environment and author of a related study in the journal Biotropica, said the story drove “unprecedented attention” to the study, including a share on Instagram from actor and environmental advocate Leonardo DiCaprio. In addition, The Economist reached out to the researchers, citing Mongabay’s reporting.
Brando estimated that the story reached millions of people, a scale of visibility rarely achieved for such niche ecological research. “Mongabay’s article had a significant impact on my research in terms of advertising,” Lautenschlager said. “It definitely raised the interest of people inside and outside academia.” Colleagues, researchers, and even a zookeeper from the Paris Zoo reached out to discuss tapir behavior, and how communal latrines may be tied to social or reproductive functions.
Reporting spurs effort to return key tree to nature in Mauritius
A 2024 Mongabay article by wire reporter Shanna Hanbury revealed that the last wild Round Island hurricane palm (Dictyosperma album var. conjugatum), a rare species native to Mauritius, had snapped during a windstorm, marking its extinction. Once thriving on the Indian Ocean’s Round Island, a hotspot for rare species, the tree had stood alone for decades as the only survivor of its kind.
“The tree was like the Eiffel Tower of Round Island. Anybody working on plants, reptiles, seabirds, or invertebrates would say, ‘We’ve got to go see it,’” said Vikash Tatayah, conservation director of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation. The NGO has been working to save the palm and other species for decades in partnership with the Mauritian government and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Years of decline ultimately took their toll, but it may not be the end.
After reading Mongabay’s report, Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden (RJBG) discovered it held a living specimen of the same variant. After confirming the tree produced flowers and fruits, the botanical garden shared its findings publicly.
“We discovered we’ve had the hurricane palm in our collection for over 70 years, which means there’s a reasonable chance that ours come from other parent plants, older than the ones they may have there today,” said RJBG’s press officer, Claudia Rabelo Lopes. “We also found through the BGCI that this variety is being cultivated in other botanical gardens around the world,” she said.
After gathering more information about their specimens and compiling data, staff from the botanical garden told Mongabay in October 2025 that they were contacting the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation with the intention to help return the Round Island hurricane palm variant to the wild. These actions, directly prompted by Mongabay’s independent reporting, opened a new path for international cooperation to restore a tree once thought lost.
Following up to track impact
The Newswire Desk also follows up on prior reporting to document impact. For example, this short calls attention to a recommendation by Brazilian authorities to suspend all ongoing and future REDD+ and carbon credit projects on Indigenous and traditional territories in the state of Amazonas. The recommendation follows a special investigation published by Mongabay highlighting the potential problem of timber laundering associated with REDD+ projects. As the Newswire Desk evolves, Mongabay aims to do more follow-up coverage similar to this. It’s just one way to sustain public oversight supportive of transparency and accountability of the issues we’re reporting on, while also tracking journalism’s impact.
Banner image: African elephants fighting in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. Photo by Julie Larsen © Wildlife Conservation Society.
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