Need magazine seeks faces of humanitarian aid

The Kinnunens created the quarterly magazine because they believed there wasn’t a venue for news about the end results of humanitarian programs. “We saw a gap in hopeful stories,” says Stephanie Kinnunen. (She and her husband were teachers and had never worked in publishing or journalism before launching NEED.) Her friends would demand stories when the Kinnunens returned from their trips, and would wonder why they never heard these tales anywhere else. “So many media outlets are focused on celebrities-but not on news that I or people that I know care about.”

NEED launced last November with initial distribution of 25,000. The mag has just gotten into Barnes & Noble and Borders stores thanks to a new distribution deal, so expect NEED to enjoy a higher profile moving into 2008. (The third issue comes out in late August.)