Portugal: Ana Teresa Silva, founder of IM magazine

Ana Teresa Silva, 40 years old, is a journalist native to Lisbon, Portugal who has recently founded an online magazine based on a new media concept: to give space to the good in the world. The UK has its New Consumer Magazine, founded by Scotland?s number one social entrepreneur Mel Young and the USA its L.A based Good Magazine, ?a platform", in the words of Good founder Ben Goldhirsh, ?for the ideas, people, and businesses that are driving change in the world?.

Now Portugal too has its very own social magazine: IM,published in Portuguese and English, takes us into the world of visionaries, philanthropists, volunteers and artists. What they all have in common is the desire to make a difference, to think of new solutions for old problems and to talk about the positive side of life that so rarely hits the news. Why IM? Because IM (or MI) can stand for innovation makers, magnificent inventions, ideas in motion or major intentions. In view of Vita Europe?s special report out soon on the emergence of a new kind of social magazine, we fly down to Lisbon to meet IM?s founder and director, Ana Teresa.

Why create a magazine like IM?
In a world where information and knowledge are crucial for development, this magazine intends to be an alternative to the actual and dominant perspective of communication, functioning as an element of inspiration and transformation, by shedding light over the so called ?bright side of the world?, which unfortunately too many times stays in the shade of the public knowledge.

I really think that readers have lack of this positive news. It?s a question of balance. It?s a complement really needed nowadays in the media world. People only see the world as grey and black. They receive to much news about wars, terrorism, murders, hunger, poverty, conflicts, diseases, etc., and just a few good things… Confidence is essential to change, to innovation, to moving forward and to positive change. People need to know that there are marvellous people working to solve problems, to help others; the world must know the excellent initiatives and actions that are happening in every professional field. We all need this, even those of us who are optimists! It?s a question of knowing that we are not alone on our journey.

Creating IM was a matter of seeing this need – I think Vita Europe had the same vision… – and to transform this dream into reality.

Why your interest in social themes and since when has your interest in the social and your career shared the same direction?
I can?t say when exactly as I have always been interested in the social. My projects, my research, my articles, my chronicles, the documentaries I?ve worked for, they all have social themes ? or ?positive social change? – in common. Being better for a better world, dreaming and doing.

I?ve worked a lot for children too. But I think it has the same root. The power of the written word for social transformation, to educate and help the future generations. I really believe in journalists as engineers: building bridges. Bridges between different people, initiatives, projects, faiths built on the power of information.

Why publish in both English and Portuguese?
We are not dealing with Portuguese matters, but human matters. Everybody needs to know ?the bright side of the world? and be inspired by the best examples in the world. It had to be in English… And our articles always have that international perspective. It can happen in any part of the world but if it is a good example, an inspiring one that can be reproduced in another place, then it is IM.

How many readers does IM have a month?
We don?t have a month yet! We launched on the 8th of May 2008 but we received a really good reaction from different parts of the world. I?m very happy. It has been a really good beginning.

How is the magazine funded?
The inevitable question… It isn?t, yet. Maybe this answer will not surprise professional dreamers that are not afraid of hard work. I had this dream and I knew that, because it was such a innovative concept, I had to make it real, for people to see it, believe it and then invest in it. So I?ve gathered a magnificent group of people together who share this vision and believe in my project – experienced journalists, people recognized in different professional areas (to see who they are click here) – and we planted the seed. Now, to really flourish, we are looking for visionary and responsible companies that want to support this project. People that believe, like us, that are million of readers out there looking for our good news, and believe in the importance of our work. We?ve made a plan for our sustainability, and the commercial team are in the field presenting, to companies and foundations, different purposes and investment alternatives, from advertising to sponsors, to specific actions like the Observatory of Corporate Social Responsibility.

We are confident in the quality of IM Magazine and the public feedback has been fantastic, so… I hope that by next month I will be able to give an answer to this question!

Do you have an idea of what IM reader?s identikit may be?
Its hard to say as we are still so young, but from the subscriptions to our newsletter I can tell that there are people from such a big range of professions… Just to give a few examples: nurses, tv producers, tourism professionals, teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs, journalists, biologists, architects, advertising people, psychologists, engineers, designers, sociologists…

And from the emails we are receiving, and the statistics, we can see that are readers from Portugal (of course!) and also UK, France, Spain, Italy, United States, India and Brasil (we had also from another countries of Latin America and Asia but less significant until now).

How do you promote IM?
IM Magazine reaches out to the public in different ways. First, through a ?friendly? chain reaction: the concept itself brings people to our website, and if they like what they see they read on and pass the message through their blogs, forums and networks.

Secondly we are establishing partnerships with universities, social entrepreneur networks, ?positive communities?, portals and so on that are in harmony with the IM spirit, as well as other media. I think that these partnerships will form the basis of our future readership across the world.

Finally, we are part of Portugal?s biggest portal, SAPO. We were invited to it because of our project and we will soon launch a big online campaign. We will also publish articles on the SAPO homepage that is bound to bring us visitors.

Mostly, we are really betting on the quality, the knowledge, the joy and the heart we all put into this project.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing Portuguese civil society today?
To believe in their own power to make (and to be) the change.

What is Portuguese civil soicety?s greatest strength?
Its good will.

More info
http://immagazine.sapo.pt/eng/index.html