Ex-Forbes publisher to guide Web site

The creators of an Atlanta-based environmental news Web site called Mother Nature Network have hired former Forbes Publisher Jim Berrien as its president and chief operating officer.

Berrien, who served as president and publisher of Forbes Magazine Group from 1999 through last year, will focus primarily on getting sponsorships as well as support Mother Nature Network’s founders —- veteran marketing executive Joel Babbit and Rolling Stone keyboardist and Georgia tree farmer Chuck Leavell.

He will remain in New York to be closer to advertisers.

“When I left Forbes, I made a list of things that, if I ever went back to work again, had to be true,” Berrien said. “For one, the business had to matter, and nothing could have presented itself more here.”

Mother Nature Network —- called MNN for short —- was formed by Babbit and Leavell last year and launched in January. The pair raised $10 million in personal contributions and investments from four other Atlanta businessmen. They added Berrien after a national search for a president.

“We knew how important this person would be for the company and for the vision we had,” Leavell said. Babbit said he thinks the media industry will see more veteran executives moving from traditional outlets to online outfits such as theirs.

“As the changes occur to the media world where newspapers and weekly magazines and TV networks are having their challenges, you’re going to see movement of very senior executives to Internet and startup opportunities,” he said.

The ad-supported site has 17 full-time staffers and in March will start getting contributions from a network of college bloggers, who will report, write and stream video from each of the 50 states. The goal is to create the most visited green-themed destination on the Internet.