Category Archives: Blog

By John Mennell As a teen, I devoured every copy of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics that I could get my hands on. It’s one of the reasons that weContinueContinue reading “Daydreaming fantastic possibilities as covers of magazines”

Illustration by Michael MennellMagazineLiteracy.org is blessed with amazing amounts of technology and human support that allows us to run lean literacy operations – we are still all volunteers – pushed to the limitContinueContinue reading “Rise Up for Literacy!”

John Mennell is the founder and impassioned spokesperson for Magazine Literacy, and from time to time I get calls from people who are inspired by his fervor to get involvedContinueContinue reading “Publishing Executive – Three Steps to Better Industry Health, from a Display Manufacturer”

“…to challenge young girls… challenge them to enjoy and make the utmost of those few and precious years of childhood”- Don and Jane Evans via Marilyn Edwards Tom and MarilynContinueContinue reading “A newspaper man and a french horn maestro gift 150,000 magazines to children”

Media Release Madison, WI— At 16, John Mennell, founder of MagazineLiteracy.org, and a friend cleaned out an abandoned school to create a teen center for their hometown. At 26, heContinueContinue reading “Gift of 150,000 Kid’s Magazines and Whole Foods Newsstand Campaign Pay Magazines Forward for Literacy”

Make a donation today and we will use 100% of it to get magazines you love to read and share to at-risk readers via food pantries, job training, mentoring, and otherContinueContinue reading “M-DAY – Liberate Newsstand Magazines for Literacy”

by John MennellMagazineLiteracy.org has received a gargantuan gift of up to 150,000 issues of Boy’s Quest, Hopscotch for Girls, and Fun for Kidz magazines for delivery to at-risk children via foodContinueContinue reading “Gift of 150,000 Boy's Quest, Hopscotch for Girls, and Fun for Kidz magazines catapults literacy for at-risk kids”

Doug Forrestal at Ryleco Displays has big ideas, a big heart, and is a man who takes action – he sees what can be and asks why not? We have aContinueContinue reading “Ryleco displays create POP-up Literacy!”

by John MennellOnce a month, we hold a “First Sunday” magazine bundling event in our office to sort and create packages of recycled magazines for our literacy marketplace. I recentlyContinueContinue reading “Young professional males love to read magazines as much as their moms”

by John Mennell So, you make magazines live again!                  – A new reader and friend Eight months ago I wrote a postContinueContinue reading “So, you make magazines live again”

Whole Foods Magazine Harvest by John MennellWe’ve just secured our first newsstand magazine drive at a Whole Foods scheduled for Earth Month from store open to close on Saturday AprilContinueContinue reading “Poverty is big, but you are bigger – empty this Whole Foods newsstand for literacy”

Andy and Craig were taken from their friends and families too soon and unexpectedly to make any sense.  Their soul mates – Tiffany and Carol – have payed their preciousContinueContinue reading “With precious magazines paid forward, we are rebels with tat mags and a cause”

Welcome to Shine United – one part ad agency, one part digital shop, one part nitrous-burning Chevy Nova with the pedal to the floor. At Shine, our thinking is bold,ContinueContinue reading “Shine United ad agency reads & recycles magazines for literacy extending supply chain reach”

Please share our Kitchen Gallery Culinary Magazine Drive poster and contact us to collect new and recycled magazines at your shop for literacy. Learn more about the Kitchen Gallery magazineContinueContinue reading “Share our Kitchen Gallery culinary magazine drive poster”

We celebrate our love in February. Ring the dinner bell and light the candles! We’ve cooked up an idea with the Kitchen Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin that we can serveContinueContinue reading “Kitchen Gallery harvests delicious culinary magazines for hungry readers”

Our literacy journey continued last night with this Disrupt Poverty talk at the amazing Center for Entrepreneurship in Liberal Education in Beloit (CELEB).  This tech start-up, art, media, maker, co-working space is staffedContinueContinue reading “Beloit College Center for Entrepreneurship hosts Distrupt Poverty talk”

Today we had the great pleasure and privilege to spend the day with the awesomely talented Steve, Mic, Rachel, Matt, and Jon from Bendyworks – a world renowned agile softwareContinueContinue reading “Bendyworks kicks-off design of MagPower Magazine Literacy Marketplace”

By John Mennell Like food and water, literacy is essential for humans to thrive. At MagLiteracy.org, we are blessed with so much generous support from thousands of donors and volunteers,ContinueContinue reading “Make literacy funding personal to change lives and the world for good”

by John MennellConceived twenty and incorporated ten years ago – 2014 is a watershed for MagazineLiteracy.org – a time for renewal, reinvention and growth.  With titles for every age andContinueContinue reading “All aboard a high-speed literacy train powered by One Month Rails”

by John MennellSteve Blank – author of Four Steps to the Epiphany – is credited with launching the lean start-up movement, further evangelized by Eric Ries, Beth Kanter, and others.  AContinueContinue reading “How a two year-old nailed the power of magazines for literacy in four words”

Consumers coast-to-coast are paying their favorite magazines forward by recycling them for literacy. Fully in the holiday and the recycling spirit, the magazines are arriving in every type of giftContinueContinue reading “Consumers pay their favorite magazines forward for literacy”

Urban Land Interests – a force in Madison – are superheroes for providing us literacy logistics. Thank you Urban Land Interests for helping to reshape our magazine recycling operations, soContinueContinue reading “Thank you Urban Land Interests for bringing magazines for literacy home”