Jon Wilson is a believer in possibilities.

That’s not the same as saying the editor and publisher of Hope magazine is a starry-eyed optimist. No, instead he believes that individuals can help to address society’s ills.

“All of us want to make a difference, for our lives to have meaning, to make a mark,” Wilson said in his Brooklin office. “But it’s hard to know how to do that.”

That’s where Hope, now in its third year of publication, comes in.

“We’ve got some questions, which we convey, and maybe then we can find solutions,” the 52-year-old Wilson said. “We should address the problems, but I don’t think we should be in-your-face about the challenges.”

With its brand of “solutions journalism,” Hope is drawing national acclaim.

In its Alternative Press Awards, The Utne Reader recently voted Hope the Best New Title, saying, “According to much of the media, good news is no news. But Hope magazine sees things differently, showing us a compelling side of contemporary life that rarely gets covered. This well-constructed magazine of optimistic activism gives us clear-eyed reasons to hope and the tools to make a difference.”

The award, in The Utne Reader’s January-February issue, was needed reaffirmation at the Hope offices.

“It came at a perfect time,” Wilson said. “We were starting to wonder, `Is anyone noticing this, what we’re doing?’ To be recognized by our peers was a great feather in our cap. We took a great deal of pride and pleasure in this. It was a great boost to us.”

Wilson, who built WoodenBoat magazine from 9,000 subscribers in 1975 to 105,000 today, has had the dream of Hope for more than a decade.

In 1985, in an issue of Newsweek, he came upon a photo essay in which a suspected Sandinista spy was shown being executed by a Contra soldier with a combat knife in the Nicaraguan jungle.

According to Wilson, that sparked in him a realization of the need for a magazine exploring the more fundamental realities of the human experience, while at the same time endeavoring to discover and convey the very best of humanity.

But Wilson waited for the right time for Hope.

“I wanted to be in a position financially to launch it without having to borrow too much money or to find outside investors,” he said. “Both would have been hard for me to handle temperamentally.”

Still, it has been a struggle for Hope to catch on in the marketplace.

“Hope means something different to everyone, and it’s an abstraction, so it will always be a challenge,” Wilson said. “Some think it’s religious, others think it’s political and still others think it’s New Age. So the title stops some people before they even read it.”

Hope has 13,000 subscribers, and Wilson had hoped to have doubled that number by now.

“It’s growing, but it’s simply slower than I thought it would be,” he said. “It is a success, but my expectations were overblown.”

Who are Hope’s subscribers? Wilson estimates 80 percent are female, with 65 percent of those between ages 50 and 60, who have advanced degrees and are earning good salaries and living in the suburbs.

“What I infer from that information is that these are people who care about what is happening in our culture and want to know what people are doing to make a difference, because they themselves are striving to make a difference,” he said. “That’s the kind of reader we want.”

Hope’s strongest advertisers are book publishers.

“We’re all competing with TV and the Internet for people’s time,” Wilson said. “Book publishers and magazine publishers are in the same boat. They require attention and commitment from readers for a period of time.”

Other than the subhead “People Making a Difference,” there’s little on the cover of Hope to tell what it’s about. While Hope is evolving, Wilson isn’t keen on making dramatic changes to the magazine’s look.

“We’re trying to convey a quiet sense of integrity, a quiet sense of humanity,” he said. “And the cover has to reflect that.”

Once people get by Hope’s cover, what do they find? The most recent issue (February 1998) featured articles on raising boys who are both strong and sensitive, the coming-out experiences of two gays, an inner-city service corps for youth, a woman who escaped drugs and prostitution and is helping others with similar problems, and a tiny loan program for at-home businesses. In general, Hope focuses on individual, not institutional, efforts.

Eighty percent of the magazine’s content is free-lance, including book excerpts “that are new enough and are particularly relevant to Hope,” Wilson said. The other 20 percent is staff-generated.

“Each of the editors are very good writers, and I would like to have them write more, but time is a problem,” he said. “We’re understaffed for what we do.”

Senior Editor Kimberly Ridley, Assistant Editor Frances Lefkowitz and Wilson decide equally what gets into the magazine.

“We all have to feel that each piece does something to advance Hope’s mission,” Wilson said. “It’s kind of visceral. It depends on depth, heart and the craft of each piece.”

Wilson is becoming more of an advocate with each issue.

“The more problems I become aware of, the more urgent I feel,” he said. “I’m focusing more on taking action in my editor’s page. I’m feeling a responsibility to push the causes a little bit more, because there are many people in great need.”

Wilson proudly says there’s no magazine out there exactly like Hope.

“The intention of most magazines is to encourage intellectual discourse,” he said. “Our mission goes beyond that to encourage feeling. There’s a place for a magazine that addresses issues of the heart as well as the issues of the mind. We deprive our culture of potential when we say such ideas aren’t worthy of consideration.”

Hope will get every chance to flourish, Wilson said.

“I feel this mission very deeply,” he said. “I have to keep it going; I need it to succeed. I’m going to work very hard to see that it does.”

For more information about Hope magazine, call 359-4651.