Good Magazine

A few years back I got introduced to Good Magazine during one of the Consumer Marketing class I took. Ever since I'm hooked on to this great magazine. In this blog entry, I'll review this magazine and outline what I like about it.

Good Magazine, henceforth referred to as GOOD (as they like to call them as), sets up their mission in their ‘about’ section on their website. It says and I quote “GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward. Since 2006 we've been making a magazine, videos, and events for people who give a damn."
Further their website defines their magazine as following in a very powerful and no-nonsense manner:

In a world where things too often don’t work, GOOD seeks a path that does. Left, right. In, out. Greed, altruism. Us, them. These are the defaults and they are broken. We are an alternative model. We are the reasonable people who give a damn. No dogma. No party lines. No borders. We care about what works--what is sustainable, prosperous, productive, creative, and just--for all of us and each of us. This isn’t easy, but we are not afraid to fail. We’ll figure it out as we go.




Wikipedia states GOOD "is a media platform that promotes, connects, and reports on individuals, businesses, and non-profits "pushing the world forward.... produces online videos, and events highlighting examples of what is sustainable, prosperous, productive, creative, equitable. The content covers a variety of topics, including the environment, education, urban planning, design, food, politics, culture, lifestyle, technology, and health."

From start, they followed an unconventional business model of donating all their subscription money to charities. Upon further exploration of the website, I find that they deliver what they clearly state in their mission. Each of their main sections contains sub-sections that talk about not just news and stories of the day but also thought-provoking and stimulating articles. With an excellent array of articles on Lifestyle, Culture and Business are bound to invoke keen interest from their target readers. 

While over the years I have seen magazines evolve to broader areas, the general appeal and there still remains very much the same - providing a platform for the ideas, people, and businesses that are driving change in the world. 

GOOD provides a platform to share ideas around common good that their readers value. GOOD readers predominately care for a cause and the first reason to pick this magazine is perhaps this realization that in the process they are helping a cause, hence the good feeling. It is expected that readers of GOOD are more educated, employed, and perhaps financially more stable. 

The popularity and growth of GOOD’s in large parts are dependent on two factors, their network of charity they deal with and the quality of the content in their magazine. Since readers would like to see their money go to the charity close to their heart, lack of association of the charity with GOOD can be a put off for some. The revenue for the magazine is mainly advertising, hence the readership/viewership is key for the success of such a venture. In essence, the challenge for GOOD is producing work (content) that is challenging and inspiring.

GOOD, in its unique, do good – feel good – read good model is unique, and being the leader in this concept along with very appropriate title should be a very formidable competitor to any other similar non-profit. The key to understanding here is that although they contribute 100% of the subscription to the charity of readers' choice, they themselves are not `non-profit. Thus, they offer the best of both worlds, they look like non-profit, hence offer great appeal, but they can function as a for-profit business.

In closing, if you haven't checked out good yet, you must give it a try and judge for yourself. I promise you won't be disappointed.