Los Angeles (October 13, 2009) - GOOD has consolidated Reason Pictures, GOOD Magazine and GOOD Digital under a new single entity – GOOD Worldwide. The mission of the company is to celebrate and enable individuals, businesses and non-profits pushing the world forward.
“When we set out in 2006, breaking 2M monthly unique visitors and 25M video streams, winning four national magazine awards and selling a feature length documentary film about Barack Obama to HBO in less than three years was well beyond our goals” – said Ben Goldhirsh, co-founder and CEO of GOOD. “Now the challenge is investing in the digital platform to support and connect the individuals, businesses, and non-profits that are driving this movement. This will be critical to our mission and our business. I think we have the brand, the talent, and the distribution to make this happen, but much work needs to be done."
As a part of the consolidation, Craig Shapiro was named President of the new entity back in December of 2008. Previously Mr. Shapiro led GOOD’s digital efforts, was Head of Content Strategy and Acquisition at SK Telecom-Earthlink Joint Venture (Helio) and sat on the board of the Mobile Marketing Association.
The company recently closed a series A round of financing led by Mr. Goldhirsh and included several angel investors – one being Nicholas Negroponte.
“We are incredibly excited to have Mr. Negroponte’s support in the company,” added Shapiro. “As we sharpen our focus around new media and technology, his experience at the MIT Media Lab as well as helping businesses such as Skype, Wired and Zagat will prove invaluable.”
In addition, the company has forged partnerships and/or investments in several other startups including:
- Causes: a Facebook and MySpace application that promotes viral donations of time and money to charities and nonprofits. In two years, they registered more than 85 million users who supported more than 260,000 causes worldwide and already raised more than $14 million.
- Goodrec: a mobile and online recommendation service that offers concise recommendations at the moment of inspiration from the sources and people you know and trust.
- Govit: an application that empowers citizens to take action in our representative democracy. On Govit you can connect with your elected representatives; organize and promote specific legislation; vote on active legislation; and have your vote sent instantly to your reps.
About GOOD
Selected as the 4th most inspirational brand globally by PSFK, GOOD is a leading platform for thought and action revolving around pushing our world forward. We make a website that reaches over 2 million monthly uniques, a magazine that reaches two hundred thousand readers, videos that reach millions and live events that had over 20,000 attendees in the last year. Our mission is to unite, celebrate, and support the individuals, businesses, and non-profits driving progress in today’s world. See what's GOOD: www.good.is.
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tali[at]goodinc[dot]com