Major Planet Studios

MajorPlanet Studios is a newsroom and production studio dedicated to redefining the way we tell multimedia stories. We have the right people—journalists, producers, designers, and programmers—to pull together the drama, narrative and facts into digital packages with video, audio, text and interactive features.

We report original stories, and help our partners tell their own. Our digital publishing platforms are designed to drive unique narratives on the Web, tablets and mobile devices. We focus on the role of science, the environment and economics in a changing world.

MajorPlanet is run by three partners who have worked for print, radio, television and online publications for more than a decade. We are journalists, producers, radio reporters, writers and programers. Our principals have worked for and contributed to publications such as Scientific American, CNN.com, San Jose Mercury News, Christian Science Monitor, Slate, Discovery, National Geographic, Foreign Policy, and the Phnom Penh Post.

Services

Stories

Our narratives showcase the idea that the right fit between story and publishing technology can create deeper engagement, convey more understanding and reach more people through major social networks and media channels. We conceive, report and produce stories, as well as design the digital platforms to deliver them. Our unique approach ensures that the message is custom designed for the medium. MajorPlanet creates independent digital features on important subjects, as well as through partnerships.

Platforms

We offer a single place to conceive, design, and publish multimedia narratives. Our development team designs platforms to publish on the Apple ecosystem (iOS), the open Web (HTMl5), as well as Android and Kindle devices. MajorPlanet specializes in helping partners choose the right publishing platform for each story delivering to mobile devices, tablets and the Web.

Workshops

We work directly with publishers, scientific associations, academia, media outlets and non-profits to enhance their digital media approach, and offer a tested curriculum training and workshops for organizations. We have presented on storytelling, design and social media to academic, corporate and government audiences including the National Academy of Science, the National Association for Science Writers, and Brookhaven National Lab.

Team

Michael J. Coren

Michael is the co-founder and managing director of MajorPlanet Studios. He started his journalism career with the San Jose Mercury News, and went on to report from Cambodia as the managing editor of the Phnom Penh Post and served as the science and environmental producer for CNN.com.

At MajorPlanet, Michael leads the editorial and design process developing multimedia narratives and technology. He has produced multimedia features, radio segments and investigative environmental and economic pieces. He earned a Master’s degree at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies focused on environmental economics, and followed his graduate education advising the World Bank, the UK Government and others on climate change mitigation. He is now a staff writer for Co.Exist for FastCompany magazine and a contributor to other national magazines and newspapers.

Christie Nicholson

Christie is an award-winning science journalist who oversees MajorPlanet’s content production and advisory group. Her “60-Second” audio podcasts regularly cracks the top ten on iTunes and Scientific American where she is an online contributor. She is also contributing editor at CBS Interactive’s SmartPlanet, and regularly appears in Web and TV shows on Slate, the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel.

Christie graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism where, in addition to learning which fork is for what, she received two Webbys for her Master’s thesis The Science of Sex in 2007. Christie teaches digital journalism at the Banff Center for the Arts and Stony Brook University. She has also led social media workshops for the National Academy of Science, the National Association for Science Writers, Brookhaven National Lab, PopTech Science Fellows program and other organizations. She speaks at many events about emerging technologies with game-changing potential including MIT/Stanford’s VLAB, SXSW Interactive and Sundance Film Festival.

Christopher Mims

Christopher works on technology solutions for newsrooms and storytellers to to reach new audiences more effectively at Major Planet. After an early career as a neuroscience researcher and firebrand columnist for Emory University’s Wheel, Christopher has written and edited at Scientific American, Grist.org. and Small Mammal Productions, as well as successfully launching ScienceBlogs.com in 2005 back when it was considered daring.

Christopher is now focused on MajorPlanet’s publication platform design, and creates new media strategies for partners, applying the right technology to the best narratives. He is also a columnist at the MIT Technology Review and a contributor to FastCompany. Christopher lives in Washington, DC with his wife Rachel and a mighty tyke named Ike.

Dave Stanton

Dave Stanton is the technology director for MajorPlanet’s publishing tools and custom code base for digital narrative. He is the former Technology Fellow for The Poynter Institute and is leading the first major study on tablet reading behavior for Poynter.

Dave’s daily workload involves front-end development and managing back-end developers and system architects as well as contractors. His doctoral work at the University of Florida was focused on modeling news-reading behavior and cognition across platforms. His research focused on methodologies and statistical analysis to understand behavioral and cognitive psychology through experimental design. He has conducted more than 1,000 hours of task-oriented and free-reading usability trials. Dave also teaches workshops for professional
media associations.

Portfolio

MajorPlanet principals and staff serve as contributing editors and writers on several national publications covering science, environment and economics. Our expertise reporting, writing and producing digital media for a national audience allows us to craft effective, compelling stories that appeal to a broad audience, and create a master narrative for the multimedia experience. Publications we write for include FastCompany, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, MIT Tech Review, and others.

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Feature Journalism

MajorPlanet principals and staff serve as contributing editors and writers on several national publications covering science, environment and economics. Our expertise in reporting and writing for a national audience allows us to craft effective, compelling stories that appeal to a broad audience, and create a master narrative for the multimedia experience. Our work is widely shared over social media.

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60-Second Science

Since 2007 this weekly audio podcast consistently cracks the top fifteen in the science category on iTunes. Each week Christie Nicholson clarifies and distills the latest research in neuroscience and human behavior. Reaching over 1 million listeners, both the 60-Second Mind and 60-Second Science series continues to be two of Scientific American’s most successful online products.

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The Dirt On Green

The Dirt on Green is a 10-part series that exposes the misinformation and deception behind marketing schemes launched by several major brands selling “sustainable” products. Christie Nicholson conceived, wrote and hosted the Web video series for iThentic, designed to inspire real individual action for a better planet. Animation was combined with audience-led questions to create an interactive series featured on the Babelgum.com network, and appeared as a 2011 Webby Awards honoree for Public Service and Activism. The series was produced by Smiley Guy Studios in Toronto.