About


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Nice Things have been written
–Email: michaeljgoff at gmail

Now:

Before:

  • Advisor: defining eco-blog Treehugger, Center for Citizen Media, (pre-Google) Blogger
  • Dan Gillmor’s partner/CEO, early local/citizen journalism effort, Bayosphere
  • Lead Volunteer (Haiti), Clinton AIDS Initiative
  • CEO, The Accelerator Group & Roamable Corp
  • Microsoft: General Manager, MSN.com, Editorial Director, Sidewalk city guides
  • Founder/Editor-in-chief, Out magazine, Out.com

2005: Partnered with journalist Dan Gillmor to launch one of the first-ever citizen-journalist sites, Bayosphere, an online community of, by, and for the Bay Area focusing on the tech industry, and on citizen media itself. HonorTags, was a miserable failure ofan attempt to raise awareness and the level of trust in citizen journalism. Bayosphere was sold to hyperlocal-focused Backfence.

Prior, Goff led the William J. Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative all-volunteer team in Haiti, working with the first lady and ministry of health to guide the creation of a national HIV/AIDS treatment plan that was ratified by all local and international stakeholders and donors. He went on for a shorter project helping the OECS nations in the Caribbean get the UN Global Funds that they had been allocated released for AIDS treatment programs.

As CEO of Roamable, a wireless publishing platform company, he built a team of developers with a great idea and application into a company with shippable products; customers including MSNBC, MTV, and Ticketmaster; and good reviews (Wall Street Journal, trade publications).

Goff initially brought Roamable into the Accelerator Group as CEO of the investing and consulting partnership that included Upendra Shardanand, Clay Shirky, Jon Rubin, Alexandra Angle and Saul Klein. Three companies in the group’s portfolio have been acquired: Blogger (Google), Avogadro (Openwave), and Insight First (24/7).

Previously, Goff helped launch Microsoft’s city-guide business, Sidewalk and sell it to Citysearch. (Newsweek)As General Manager of MSN.com, (Programming and Technologies) he was charged with packaging Microsoft’s online properties ” CarPoint, Investor, Sidewalk, Expedia and Hotmail, among others ” with new programming to launch as a comprehensive Internet network leveraging MSN’s traffic. He brought in more than $150 million in revenue deals, including what was then the largest advertising deal ever and launched MSN’s women’s channel

Before Microsoft, Goff launched and re-launched magazines for Hearst Magazines, McCalls, Roger Black Inc., Esquire as well as on his own, founding Out Magazine and Out.com. As Editor-in-chief and President he grew it into the most widely read gay publication, attracting almost every top advertiser, and featuring top editorial talent in the the gay market for the first time. (Newsweek., Time)

From Waldenbooks to the Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain, gay magazines… can now be seen and purchased at a majority of newsstands and grocery chains that never carried any such titles before this year.

The "outing" of gay magazines can be credited to two key factors: Michael Goff and the changing content of gay publications. Although Goff is not the first to publish a gay lifestyle magazine, the president and editor in chief of the New York City-based bimonthly Out has been a major influence in altering the category’s image.

Samir Husni, go-to guy in academia for for the magazine industry in "The mainstreaming of gay titles"
– Folio magazine, Samir Husni. Sept 1, 1993

Goff is a graduate of Stanford University, and his work has been covered widely. He served on the board of ACRIA, a non-profit group which funds and manages community-based clinical trials for AIDS treatments in New York City, for many years. He has written on social issues related to HIV, was a member of ACTUP 1989-91, and one of his 1991 columns in Outweek raised the idea and inspired Patrick O’Connell and Frank Moore to launch the AIDS Red Ribbon. (From the Independent)

Goff has lived all over the United States as well as in West Africa, Asia and Central America. The son of two diplomats, , he’s polite most of the time, but was unable to follow in their footsteps. After passing the necessary tests, the U.S. State Department rejected for being gay.

And right now he’s feeling that this writing in the third person is terribly awkward.

Appreciated, yet somewhat dubious, recognition:

  • —Folio "Editorial Excellence, General Editorial"
  • —Swing magazine’s "Most Powerful Twentysomethings"
  • —Rolling Stone’s "Hot Magazine"
  • —Crain’s "40 under 40"
  • —Newsweek’s "VIX List: Very Important Generation Xers"
  • —Adweek "Best Direct Response Spot"