Someone Pinch Us: MoJo Wins Another “Magazine Oscar”

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24 hours later, our heads are still spinning from the National Magazine Awards gala last night. MoJo has been nominated in the General Excellence category each year for the past three; we won in 2008 and again this year. That’s an amazing honor that belongs to everyone here—from the CEO, publisher, and board of directors all the way to our fearless interns. But it also belongs to you, our readers, who sustain this operation in a way that really unprecedented in the publishing industry. Some of you help by spreading the word about MoJo on Facebook and Twitter; many of you subscribe, and tens of thousands of you also donate. To know that our readers value the kind of fiercely independent journalism—”tough and tenacious,” the magazine award judges called it—is the thing that’s kept us going through a pretty rough time for media. (Okay, that and the hot chocolate mix in the kitchen.) So please consider this Ellie your own. Just be careful when you set it on the mantle. Those pointy things are sharp.

P.S. Big congratulations to our fellow Gen Ex nominees—Foreign Policy, Garden & Gun, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Paste—as well as all the nominees and winners, and a special shout-out to the other San Francisco mags whose wins made it a big Bay night at the NMAs: McSweeney’s, San Francisco Magazine, and Wired. You all rock.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists 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 hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists 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 hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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