GOOD Idea

As the daughter of a dentist, I have been an avid magazine reader from a young age. What do teeth have to do with magazines? Nothing really, but any good medical office waiting room is the home to many magazines. My mom liked to keep the magazines at the office current, leaving a small window to read them before they left home for the office. While it was easier to keep up with the monthlies (Premiere, Los Angeles Magazine), it was far more difficult keeping up with the weeklies (People, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report). Reading magazines on the couch in the living room over a mug of decaf tea is a nightly Kelson family ritual.

My career as a marketer has provided a professional excuse to read magazines. I need to be aware of business, current event and pop culture trends to stay in-the-know. As of right know, Elliott and I subscribe to/receive nine magazines: Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, Time Out New York, Newsweek, Business 2.0, Lucky, Stanford, Guitar Player, and The Believer.

As of today, we now subscribe to ten. I just subscribed to a magazine called GOOD. It’s targeted to people who care about the world they live in (I’m paraphrasing). In the next year, their goal is to raise one million dollars by signing up 50,000 people. The cool thing is that all the money goes to charity.

As most people know, the primary reason that magazines charge a subscription fee is to sell advertising. They don’t make much money off the subscription, but it’s a way to ensure monthly circulation numbers and better understand their readers. Magazines use subscription data to sell advertisers space based on circulation and demographic information including age, gender, household income, occupation, education level, home ownership v. rentership and/or whether subscribers have a “considerable interest in advertising” (no joke – this was on the Conde Nast web site). GOOD is unique in that they are donating 100% of the paid subscription to charity. It’s quite brilliant if you think about it. GOOD builds their subscriber list while also donating to charity. Think about it: would you rather receive a crappy tote bag with your subscription or give $20 to Teach for America?

I have no idea whether the magazine will be any good, but I am definitely intrigued by the idea.