Mental Floss

Mental Floss
Founder
  • Will Pearson
  • Mangesh Hattikudur
First issue2001; 23 years ago (2001)
Final issue
Number		 2016 (2016-November/December) (print)
v. 15, no. 6
CompanyMinute Media
CountryUnited States
Based inNew York City, New York, United States
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.mentalfloss.com
ISSN1543-4702

Mental Floss (stylized as mental_floss) is an American online magazine and digital, print, and e-commerce media company focused on millennials. It is owned by Minute Media and based in New York City, United States. mentalfloss.com, which presents facts, puzzles, and trivia with a humorous tone, draws 20.5 million unique users a month. Its YouTube channel produces three weekly series and has 1.3 million subscribers. In October 2015, Mental Floss teamed with the National Geographic Channel for its first televised special, Brain Surgery Live with mental_floss, the first brain surgery ever broadcast live.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Launched in Birmingham, Alabama in 2001,[7][8] the company has additional offices in Midtown Manhattan. The publication was included in Inc. magazine's list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies.[9] Before it became a web-only publication in 2017, the magazine mental_floss had a circulation of 160,000 and published six issues a year. The magazine had more than 100,000 subscribers in over 17 countries.[10] The November/December 2016 issue was the last issue of the print edition of the magazine.[11] Instead of getting a refund, subscribers were sent copies of The Week.[12]

The company frequently publishes books and sells humorous T-shirts. It also developed a licensed trivia board game called Split Decision, similar to Trivial Pursuit. Its online store sells quirky home and office supplies, games and toys.

Dennis Publishing bought Mental Floss in 2011.

Mental Floss was acquired by Minute Media from the Felix Dennis estate in September 2018.[13]

  1. ^ "Gone Native: The Magazine Whose Editors Write Ad Content – Digiday". Digiday. 19 September 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  2. ^ "We're Hiring Writers, Editors, and a Producer". Mental Floss. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  3. ^ "Brain Surgery Live with Mental Floss". National Geographic. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  4. ^ "Gone Native: The Magazine Whose Editors Write Ad Content". Digiday. 19 September 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  5. ^ "Quantcast - Mental Floss". Quantcast. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  6. ^ "4 Ways Mental Floss Won Millennials". Digiday. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  7. ^ Press Release Archived 2006-03-26 at the Wayback Machine describing magazine launch
  8. ^ "The 20 Best Magazines of the Decade (2000–2009)". Paste Magazine. November 26, 2009. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  9. ^ "Folks behind mental_floss open retail store in Chester Township" Archived 2012-02-29 at the Wayback Machine. The News Herald
  10. ^ "Ohio couple share in the fun as Mental Floss magazine executives", Cleveland.com
  11. ^ D. B. Hebbard (30 September 2016). "Mental Floss latest to go digital-only, Dennis Publishing announces". Talking New Media. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  12. ^ "Mental Floss to end print edition", Politico, September 30, 2016
  13. ^ Jerde, Sarah (20 September 2018). "Minute Media Acquires Mental Floss". AdWeek. Retrieved 23 September 2018.