Life Media is a Toronto-based international multi-media information company with an audience in over 20 countries. Our roots reach back to 1976 when Rolf and Wendy Priesnitz were searching for an environmentally-friendly home-based business that would allow them both to work from home in order to help their two daughters learn without schooling (then called "homeschooling," but now more specifically referred to as "unschooling".) So they launched The Alternate Press to publish Natural Life – one of the original green family living magazines – and a book of poetry called Summer Love, Winter Fires. They are both still in print and were followed by other books, newsletters, newspapers and magazines during the 1980s and '90s.

In 1979, the Canadian Home Schooler newsletter was launched and in 1985 it became Child's Play magazine, which continued until 1993 when it was merged into Natural Life magazine. In 1985, The Home Business Advocate – an international home business newspaper – was launched. It also became a part of Natural Life magazine in 1993. Along the way, the company name was updated to Life Media, with The Alternate Press continuing as the book publishing imprint.

Over the years, the company has purchased magazines like Seriatim from San Francisco, California; Positive Vibrations from Victoria, British Columbia; Earthkeeper from Guelph, Ontario; and Growth Spurts from Toronto, Ontario. (An agreement was also made to purchase Mothering magazine from its founder in the mid-1970s, but negotiations fell through.) The content of the purchased magazines was merged into Natural Life. A trade magazine for the nascent natural and whole foods industry was launched in the early 1980s, under the banner Natural Foods in Canada.

In the mid 1980s, Wendy Priesnitz began to share her hands-on small business and radical unschooling experience by presenting keynote speeches and workshops at conferences across North America. She has also written nine books and, from 1996 to 2006, a weekly small business newspaper column. She is currently working on a variety of new books, including a memoir, another unschooling book and a collection of green living how-to articles from Natural Life magazine.

One of the hallmarks of Life Media and of the work of Wendy and Rolf Priesnitz is leadership in helping to pioneer new trends. So In 1994, the company put Natural Life on the Internet and a major commitment was made to electronic publishing in parallel with print.

In 2002, Life Media addressed changing market trends by once again beginning to spin off separate magazines. The first of these, Life Learning, was launched in March of 2002. In early 2008, Life Media continued to spin off specialized magazines from Natural Life and launched Natural Child magazine.

In mid-2008, it became clear that the three magazines were covering overlapping editorial territory and many subscribers and advertisers were choosing two or more of them – or, for economic reasons – having to choose just one. In order to remove the redundancies, save subscribers and advertisers money, lighten the collective ecological footprint and survive the coming recession, the print editions of the two newer magazines were reintegrated back into Natural Life Magazine, refreshing and reinforcing its branding as a unique natural family living publication. Life Learning Magazine continues to be published as an online edition.

Life Media continues to provide information about sustainable living to people across Canada, in the United States and around the world. It has won a number of awards, including an Outstanding Media Contribution Award for balanced environmental reporting.

Read articles from 1976 and 1978 describing the early days of Natural Life magazine.

Take a look back at the early issues of Natural  Life magazine.

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For the Sake of Our Children
by Leandre Bergeron, translated from French by Pamela Levac (foreword by John Taylor Gatto). The first title in our Natural Life Magazine Natural Parenting Book Series. A memoir of a year in the life of a Quebec family that illuminates non-coercive parenting and progressive homeschooling. Now available.

Life Learning: Lessons from the Educational Frontier
A unique new collection of essays from Life Learning magazine and edited by Wendy Priesnitz, which describe the philosophy and the experience of living the unschooling lifestyle from the perspective of both parents and unschooled young people. Now available.

Challenging Assumptions in Education
A newly revised edition of this classic by Wendy Priesnitz. John Taylor Gatto says: "...a tough-minded book that burns sharp holes in dark places! This is an  eye-opening guide... I heartily recommend this book." Now available.