New Magazines Seek Readers Interested in Acting Upon Their Good Intentions

A stack of new magazines is hitting newsstands or showing up in mailboxes this

year to satisfy what the publications say is a growing curiosity among Americans about how to help the world.

Their target audience is composed primarily of idealistic young people and wealthy baby boomers who are interested not only in charity work, but also in buying socially beneficial products, such as environmentally friendly cars, the magazines’ founders and editors say.

All the publications are independently owned, and no major magazine companies are currently publishing them.

Despite their common focus, the new publications market themselves differently and differ in availability, with some sold at bookstores and other retail outlets, and some available only by subscription.

With its blend of humor, politics, and pop culture, Good magazine, based in Los Angeles, stands out from the crowd. According to its founder, Benjamin Goldhirsh, the publication wants do for altruism what Wired magazine did for technology — that is, make it fun and hip.

“It’s not necessarily people who are back from the Peace Corps, though some of them are,” he says about Good‘s readers. “It’s people who just want a relevant life.”

Although it is the least focused on traditional philanthropy, Good itself serves the role of fund raiser. It donates all subscription costs to a dozen charities, including Teach for America, Unicef, and the World Wildlife Fund. Annual subscriptions cost $20 apiece.

Since it began publishing in September, $300,000 has been raised for the organizations, and the publication has attracted 15,000 subscribers.

The approach is partly motivated by self-interest, because the magazine’s beneficiaries can make for good salesmen.

“This is a way to service our interests, and service their interests,” Mr. Goldhirsh explains about the marketing effort. “Some of them get that. Some of them are kind of like, Stop calling us, you’re annoying.”

Profiling Philanthropists

While Good sees its target audience as people in their 20s who “give a damn,” as its motto reads, the other magazines are primarily focused on older, affluent individuals. One publication, Benefit, published in San Francisco, promotes what it calls the “lifestyle of giving.” About 60 percent of its content is announcements and coverage of fund-raising galas in the Bay Area.

Other contenders promise a more news-oriented approach to charitable activities and donors.

Marcia Stepanek, editor in chief of Contribute, based in New York, says her magazine will not simply be a cheerleader for wealthy philanthropists.

“Our stories aren’t about: Aren’t they fabulous? That gets really boring,” says Ms. Stepanek, a former reporter for the Hearst newspaper company.

A recent issue of the bimonthly magazine profiled 21 people younger than 40 who are “making a difference,” including the Hollywood actor Edward Norton and Karenna Gore-Schiff, the daughter of the former vice president Al Gore. It also included a report card on 100 charities, an interview with a United Nations AIDS expert, and “Gifts for Good,” a regular feature that lists products sold by nonprofit groups.

The magazine, which sends free copies to 70,000 people, combines local coverage of New York with national stories and plans to start editions in Chicago and San Francisco this year.

In addition, Contribute says its print publication primarily serves to drive people to its Web site and promote events it will sponsor, an approach many of the magazines are following. Ms. Stepanek say she plans to put on four forums in 2007 on such topics as corporate giving, youth and philanthropy, and ways to promote the arts.

Some of the new efforts to focus attention on philanthropy have emerged because of frustration with mainstream news outlets. Stephanie Kinnunen and her husband were motivated to start their publication, Need, after watching a BBC documentary on “ragpickers,” young women and girls who eke out an arduous existence selling garbage and begging in India. The couple wanted to send a donation to assist the street children, but the television show — and a subsequent phone call to the BBC — yielded no information on how to do so.

“We were so inspired by these little girls,” says Ms. Kinnunen, a former business manager and teacher. “We wanted to help them.”

Need, which is based in Minneapolis, includes articles and glossy photo spreads on humanitarian emergencies and charities responding to the distress. It started in December and has attracted a diverse group of readers, including teenagers, an order of nuns, and members of Congress, its co-founder says.

Deep Pockets

To be sure, philanthropy-related magazines have started — and failed — in the past.

Last year, Privilege, which reached out to wealthy donors in Los Angeles, suspended publication, though its sponsors say it will return in the near future. And in 1998, a national magazine for philanthropists, The American Benefactor, was folded into Worth, a personal-finance magazine, after failing to generate enough interest.

Roberta d’Eustachio, founder of The American Benefactor, says a hunger exists for information about charity and how to help the less fortunate, but not all of today’s magazines can survive.

Ms. d’Eustachio herself is joining the fray this fall with the introduction of her donor-oriented publication, Giving, and looks forward to the competition. “I want this material to rise or fall in the marketplace,” she says.

At the end of the day, the magazines with deep-pocket investors are most likely to succeed.

In that regard, Good may have the advantage. Mr. Goldhirsh inherited a multimillion-dollar fortune from his late father, a magazine entrepreneur himself who founded the business publication Inc. (Mr. Goldhirsh declined to say his net worth.)

The 26-year-old has invested about $6-million in his film and news-media company, of which Good is a part, and he says he is willing to spend much more to make the magazine a success. “Right now I don’t see a ceiling on where I’ll go with this,” he says.

Indeed, the magazine owner considers Good to be a philanthropic endeavor on par with the grants he makes as a board member of the Goldhirsh Foundation, a Boston philanthropy set up by his father. “My goal for the foundation and my goal for the media effort are totally flush,” he says.

The magazine hopes to attract 50,000 subscribers by September, but Mr. Goldhirsh envisions a readership 10 times that amount some day.

Says Mr. Goldhirsh: “What’s exciting is that you have an audience now that thinks content with gravity is entertaining.”