Good Worldwide

GOOD Worldwide Inc. is a United States-based company with offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle that reports on businesses and non-profits.[1][2] GOOD produces a website, a quarterly magazine, online videos, and events. Content covered includes environmental issues, education, urban planning, design, politics, culture, technology, and health. Good Worldwide Inc. is the consolidation of originally separate brands: Reason Pictures, GOOD magazine, and GOOD Digital, in partnership with Causes, a Facebook/MySpace app promoting donations of time and money to charities and non-profits; Goodrec and Govit, an application that connects US citizens with their elected representatives.[3] GOOD Worldwide Inc. is made up of three organizations: GOOD/Media, GOOD/Community and GOOD/Corps.[4]

Brands

GOOD/Media produces an online news site, www.good.is, and quarterly print magazine, GOOD magazine. The magazine was started in 2006.[5]

GOOD Corps is GOOD Worldwide Inc's social impact consultancy.[6]

Upworthy, a website for viral content started in March 2012 by Eli Pariser and Peter Koechley, merged with Good Worldwide in 2017.[7]

History

GOOD was founded in 2006 by Ben Goldhirsh (son of Inc. magazine founder Bernie Goldhirsh) who wanted to create a "free press for the critical idealist."[8] Eschewing experienced editors, he hired friends from college and high school, including Al Gore's son, Al Gore III, to create a media company characterized by "both bold graphic style and an unconventional approach to business." The team was initially criticized by some industry experts, such as magazine executive and publishing expert Chip Block, who said, "This sounds a lot to me like vanity publishing, a bunch of kids sitting around with something they think is a really good idea, and one of them has a lot of money."[8] Others in the industry praised the magazine's design and concept upon its launch.[8]

GOOD's business strategy included donating its magazine subscription fees entirely to charities, offering subscribers multiple options for which organization their fee supported.[8][9] Goldhirsh explained the reasoning behind the strategy in an interview with Inc.: "The idea was that we would incentivize consumers with the added benefit that their money goes to charity, incentivize these charities to reach their constituencies for the $20 donation, and enjoy the added marketing and public relations that would come from having an innovative strategy."[10] Goldhirsh's theory has been criticized for not being a viable business model.[11]

Around launch time in the fall of 2006, GOOD was featured in the New York Times and mentioned by APM's Marketplace.[12] The magazine and its website were covered by NPR[13][14][15] Instead of traditional marketing strategies, GOOD used their marketing budget to throw launch parties[8] which have been reviewed and discussed by publications such as The Washington Post.[16]

In 2008, Former GOOD CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tested a concept called the "GOOD Sheet", a broadsheet product distributed exclusively at Starbucks. The company also experimented with a name-your-own-pricing scheme.[17][18]

On August 17, 2011, a joint announcement was made that social network service Jumo, a social engagement platform designed to connect users with causes and non-profits, founded by Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes, would be merging with GOOD.[19][20]

In June 2012, most of the magazine's editors were fired.[21] The firings were "for strategic reasons" to shift GOOD's focus to its social network.[21] Eight former GOOD magazine editors and writers raised funds on Kickstarter to create the one-shot magazine Tomorrow before going their separate ways.[22]

In March 2015, GOOD resumed publication of the magazine with a new design and format.[23][24] In 2017, the magazine received a National Magazine Award [25] in the Personal Service category for the Winter issue, ″What Can He Really Do, What Can We Do About It?″ [26]

In February 2016, Good Worldwide hired Nancy Miller, formerly of Wired, Fast Company, and Los Angeles magazine, to serve as editor-in-chief of the digital and print magazine.[27]

In August 2018, Good Media Group laid off 31 employees from its Upworthy site. In response, Upworthy CEO Charlie Wilkie resigned, and Eli Pariser resigned from the board.[28]

References
  1. "About Us". GOOD. Archived from the original on 2012-09-14. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  2. "GOOD Adds YouTube CEO Chad Hurley And Pepsi CMO Jill Beraud To Advisory Board". TechCrunch. 2010-03-30. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  3. "GOOD Scores Funding, Strategic Partnerships To Help Improve The World". TechCrunch. 2009-10-14. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  4. "GOOD Corps". Good Corps. 2011-05-13. Archived from the original on 2014-04-17. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  5. "GOOD. Launch of the Year". Mr. Magazines. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  6. Newman, Andrew Adam (13 May 2011). "GOOD/Corps Aims to Help Business Meet Social Goals". New York Times. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  7. Sutton, Kelsey (January 27, 2017). "Upworthy to merge with Good Worldwide, newsrooms to consolidate. About 20 staffers were laid off as part of the merger". Politico. Retrieved January 20, 2019.
  8. "A Magazine for Earnest Young Things". The New York Times. 17 September 2006. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  9. Steel, Emily (2006-07-20). "Wealthy Son Aims to Build His Legacy". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  10. "Inheriting the 'Entrepreneurial Spirit' - Ben Goldhirsh - GOOD magazine". Inc. 2007-06-19. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  11. Rothkopf, David (2007-08-16). "Doing Well By Doing Good". Foreignpolicy.com. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  12. Marketplace: Smart (socially-conscious) business Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  13. Magazine Aims to Be 'GOOD' for You NPR. October 10, 2007.
  14. Magazine Makes 'GOOD'. NPR. November 22, 2007.
  15. A Vision of 'GOOD' Works in Magazines, Web. NPR. December 8, 2007
  16. Choose GOOD Anniversary Party, The Washington Post. Julia Beizer. Sept. 5, 2007.
  17. Fell, Jason. "GOOD to Let Subscribers Name Their Own Price - Audience Development @ FolioMag.com". Test.foliomag.com. Archived from the original on 2013-12-15. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  18. "Ice-Breaker at Starbucks: The GOOD Sheet". The New York Times. 8 September 2008. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  19. Two Groups That Help Nonprofits in a Merger, Stephanie Strom, The New York Times, August 17, 2011
  20. Jumo and GOOD Combine Forces to Create Content and Social Engagement Platform Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, Chris Hughes, Jumo blog, August 17, 2011
  21. Beaujon, Andrew. "GOOD magazine lays off most of its editorial staffers". Poynter. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  22. Coscarelli, Joe. "Fired GOOD Staff Raises $20,000 for Tomorrow - Daily Intelligencer". NY Mag. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  23. "GOOD Goes Back to Print". Folio. March 30, 2015. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  24. "GOOD Magazine and the Print Pub Renaissance". Contently.com. 2015-04-23. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  25. "Ellie Awards | ASME". Archived from the original on 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  26. "The GOOD Guide to Donald Trump | GOOD". Archived from the original on 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  27. Richard Horgan (2016-03-18). "GOOD Magazine Has a New Editor in Chief". Adweek.com. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  28. Baldridge, Marlee (3 August 2018). "Upworthy just laid off 31 people. The question remains why". NeimanLab. Harvard College. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
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