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Gawker: Good Magazine

Gawker posts tagged 'Good Magazine'

How Much Would You Pay For <em>Good</em> Magazine?September 11

Good, the do-gooder magazine founded by a rich young trust funder in order to raise money for charity, is, of course, a business failure. Because who wants to read that kind of magazine, really? Last time we pointed this out, angry commenters said we should give props to Good founder Ben Goldhirsh for putting his inheritance towards a worthy cause. We do! But that doesn't mean we would pay a nickel for his magazine. Clever riposte: Good is now going the Radiohead route by letting you pay whatever you want for a subscription. Ugh, is there some kind of moral imperative now?

All the subscription money goes to a charity, which you can choose. You're definitely a bad person for not subscribing now. But! You can't in fact only pay a nickel; the

Surprise: Rich Kid Couldn't Turn Profit On <i>Good</i>September 3

Two years ago, 26-year-old publishing heir Ben Goldhirsh withdrew $2.5 million from his trust fund and exuberantly started Good, which was going to change the world by donating subscription revenues to charity, employing Al Gore's kid and writing all sorts of obnoxiously altruistic stories. Goldhirsh, who threatened to sink another $10 million into the venture over the following five years, was all too easy to mock as a spoiled vanity publisher. And, lo, he still is! Because Goldhirsh is so "stressed out" about actually making any money that he's brought in a grownup to, you know, run his business:

“I got scared,” Mr. Goldhirsh told The Observer. “I personally got scared and I pers

Dying Is Not GOODOctober 30 2007

Our friends at GOOD Magazine would like you to know that it's actually pretty selfish of you to die because it turns out it's quite terrible for the environment! You're causing global warming and polluting the ground water! Why can't you be more like the whimsical, fetishized Japanese, or one of the nebulous "many countries [where] you can be buried in a forest and grow into a tree that will convert carbon dioxide into oxygen"?

Alexander Hamilton Not Amused By 'Good' CriticismAugust 14 2007

Earlier today, we took note of the lack of women-type people on the masthead of Good magazine. But one reader thought we were barking up the wrong tree. His name is Alexander Hamilton. His letter, in all of its white male privilege-defending glory, confusing politics and sometimes demonstrable untruthfulness, follows.

I find it disconcerting that you choose to target the well meaning group of idealists at

GOOD Magazine for your criticism for the supposed lack of male vs. female "diversity" in their ranks. Indeed, it has been my experience that small Gen-Y led media companies (as a whole) tend to be be much better at fostering an environment of true diversity, ie, black, white, yellow, male, female, gay, straight, etc. So if, out of 20 odd employees, one finds a slight slant towards more men or more women or more asians or whatever, so be it, if their overall intentions are noble (which they are). Your real target should be the large consumer publishers who truly lack diversity in their ranks. Go thru the masthead of most ma

'Good' Magazine Loves Women, Except On Its StaffAugust 14 2007

The new issue of earnest (bordering-on-sanctimonious!) magazine Good has arrived! It's the first anniversary issue, so there's a bit of self-congratulatory back-thumping and tabulations of how much money the magazine and its readers have donated to charity. That part is nice. There's also a charticle, "Girl Power," about global politics that announces, "Half of us are female, but only 10 of our leaders are." Which is funny, because a look at the Good masthead doesn't reveal too many staffers of the female persuasion, either!

Out of 21 editorial staffers—including Owner/Founder Ben Goldhirsh, and the photo, design, and web staffs—Good has six women. Three of them are in copy/research, one of them is an editorial assistant, and two others work on the web. So really, there's just one woman, Features Editor Siobhan O'Connor, in a significant masthead position. There are several male staffers with gender-ambiguous names! But a quick Google proves that Casey Caplowe, Morgan Clendaniel, and even Jaime Wolf are all men.

Sure, world leaders and the Good masthead are hardly comparable entities. But if you're going down that road about the wrongs of the world, well, you might start i