Ben Goldhirsh, son if the late Bernie Goldhirsh, founder of Inc. Magazine, is following in his fathers footsteps and starting his own magazine, Good Magazine. Ben describes the magazine this way:
The world of good, not just for do-gooders anymore
Welcome
We see a growing number of people tied together not by age, career, background, or circumstance, but by a shared interest. This revolves around a passion for potential mixed with fierce pragmatism and creative engagement. We sum all this up as the sensibility of giving a damn. But to shorten it, let's call it GOOD. We're here to push this movement and cover its realization.
For while so much of today's media is taking up our space, dumbing us down, and impeding our productivity, GOOD exists to add value. So here's our first issue. We worked hard to give you something that you'll like.
This is just the beginning.
In one of the most innovative moves, Good Magazine is giving away 100% of their subscription:
Why We’re Giving Away All of Your Money
We’re doing this because
1) it’s smart business and 2) we believe in this.
Let the secret be known—most magazines do not make money on subscriptions or newsstand sales. Traditionally, the best way to get a bunch of new subscribers is to send millions of pieces of unsolicited mail – junk mail – to people who might have some interest. We don't like junk mail, and we don't like the thought of spending millions of dollars on it. So we came up with the idea of giving away all subscription fees and allowing subscribers to choose which organization they would like to support.
This whole thing is an experiment. If it works, we'll actually spend less than half of what it traditionally costs to acquire subscribers. The success of this campaign will allow us to:
a) meet a self-selecting group of quality subscribers who find us through word of mouth, internet links, media coverage, our partner organizations, or the other crazy schemes we like to come up with;
b) raise significant money for organizations that will do something important with it; and
c) save resources and prove that you can do well by doing good.
Our goal for our launch year is to create 6 amazing issues of GOOD, sign up 50,000 subscribers and donate $1 million to their favorite organizations.
Not only is this Good it shifts the magazine subscription paradigm.