Pardon Our Humblebragging

So many honors, so little shelf space.


Ah, editor’s notes. They generally fall into three categories. There’s the sort that we usually pen, where the editors feel moved to mock or inveigh about some current buffoonery or outrage. Then there’s the “here’s what’s in the issue” variety—we did that for a time, but it’s not like our table of contents is buried amid 50 pages of perfume ads.

Finally, there’s the kind that should very, very rarely be deployed: the humblebrag. That’s a Twitter term for remarking on how tough your life is as a result of whatever good fortune has come your way. “Think I just turned down interviewing Ben Affleck in person because I’ll be busy interviewing Joseph Gordon-Levitt in person. #lifeisweird.” “Why does the mercedes dealership always have fresh baked hot cookies?! Don’t they understand how mean that is?” “It’s funny how Coach people stream through First Class hoping to see someone famous. I feel disappointed in myself on their behalf.”

From the Izzy, named for I.F. Stone (top left) to the National Magazine Award (bottom right), MoJo has had a lot to celebrate.

Or, you know, “enough with the awards. Can’t take any more champagne before noon.” The MoJo staff’s choice of celebratory libations runs more to suds than bubbly, but aw shucks, this year has given us a record number of reasons to raise a toast. We’ve been nominated for no fewer than 37 top industry awards and, with a few juries still out, we’ve won 16, including the George Polk Award, previously bestowed on such nobodies as Edward R. Murrow and Joan Didion; a National Magazine Award; a Society of Professional Journalists award for our gun coverage; and public-service honors named for labor leader Sidney Hillman and legendary muckraker I.F. Stone. We’ve gotten shout-outs for everything from first-person narratives and in-depth data dives to interactive maps and games. Not to mention a spate of accolades for design, photography, and illustration, all produced on an art budget that would barely cover the cost of, er, refreshments at a Kate Moss photo shoot.

But what Mother Jones lacks in accessory closets, we make up for in spunk. Our West Coast vantage point helped us jump early on trends that turned out to transform the media industry, from launching a website back when Usenet was state of the art to retooling our product for the 24-hour news cycle and the social-media universe. We’ve been lucky to attract a terrifyingly talented staff of reporters and editors, as well as a business crew so sharp its consulting services are in demand across the industry. We’ve survived political shifts, technology upheavals, and a few highly dubious merchandising efforts (hello, MoJo high-tops!), clawing our way to 1.5 million unique visitors per week—a sevenfold increase in traffic over the past three years.

The 47 percent story that put MoJo on the map for a whole new audience last fall was the kind of scoop every journalist lives for, but it didn’t come out of nowhere: We got that video because of David Corn’s hard, patient work digging into Mitt Romney’s past at Bain Capital—and beyond that, because of the investigating, authenticating, and verifying that our reporters and fact-checkers do every day to make sure MoJo‘s reporting is unimpeachable.

Yeah, yeah, we’re intrepid geniuses. Or maybe there’s another secret: you. Readers have sustained MoJo since its inception in a dingy office above a McDonald’s on San Francisco’s Market Street 37 years ago. Back then, nonpro?t journalism was an oddity; today, our peers at bigger, better-financed (but no longer so profitable) outlets quiz us about what has become the hottest trend in the future-of-journalism debate. They gasp when we tell them that you, dear readers, show your love for MoJo not just via your subscriptions, but by giving what you can beyond that; that your participation on this front beats that of public radio listeners, by far; and that this foundation of unflinching support is what has given us the seed capital to survive, thrive, and expand at a time when watchdog journalism is more necessary than ever.

Take a bow: These awards belong to you.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

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