New York: Good News Network, the 29-year-old digital publisher built around stories of human progress, has been acquired by a newly formed holding company called GNN Group — with Whalar co-founder and creator economy investor James Street joining as co-founder and lead investor.
As reported by Deadline, Street will serve as GNN co-chairman alongside fellow co-founder Anthony Samadani, who will lead a new production unit, GNN Studios, overseeing original programming.
New Leadership
Stephanie Sharis, who previously held senior roles at AOL, SnagFilms, IndieWire, ViewLift and Cricket Media, has been named CEO. Geri Weis-Corbley, who founded Good News Network in 1997, stays on as founding editor.
Rebuild and Expansion Plans
GNN plans a “fully rebuilt” website before the end of the year, and “Good News Break,” its daily newsletter, will become a web-based app in early 2027.
The company is also launching a YouTube channel programmed by GNN Studios, focused on content from creators, celebrities, athletes and entertainers. GNN said the channel will aggregate and amplify other creators’ work rather than compete with it.
GNN Studios will also produce original films, documentaries, podcasts and YouTube-native series; its documentary “Dream Fever,” about singer Emmanuel Kelly, is currently in post-production.
The Audience Shift Behind the Deal
GNN tied the acquisition to broader shifts in how audiences consume news. The Reuters Institute’s “Digital News Report 2026” found that 42% of respondents sometimes or often avoid news, up from 29% in 2017, while global trust in news has fallen to 37% — a record low — and sits at 25% in the U.S.
The same report found that 46% of respondents get at least some news from creators of any type, and 27% get news specifically from creators focused on news content, with audiences describing creators as more entertaining, easier to understand and more relatable than traditional outlets — even as they rate them as less trustworthy and less impartial.
‘Make Good News Travel Further’
“Good News Network has spent nearly 30 years giving people a reason to feel hopeful, and I wanted to be part of what comes next,” Street said in a statement. “I’m excited to bring what I’ve learned from the creator economy to help GNN reach new audiences and make good news travel further and wider.”
“The demand is no longer theoretical,” Sharis said. “Studios and streamers have proven the appetite at enormous scale. What nobody has done is build it in news and daily media, which is exactly where the harm is being done and exactly where people spend their attention every single day. That is the gap we are capitalized to close.”
