Mother Jones Earns National Magazine Award

About: Investigative news organization honored in General Excellence category

For Release:
May 5, 2008
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Mother Jones Earns National Magazine Award Investigative news organization honored in General Excellence category

Mother Jones took home a 2008 National Magazine Award—the industry's Oscar—in the coveted General Excellence category for publications with circulations from 100,000 to 250,000 Thursday. The award honors issues published in 2007, the first full year that Mother Jones has been led by two editors in chief, Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery.

During the past year, Mother Jones has substantially reorganized itself, transitioning from a magazine-centered operation to a 24/7 print-and-digital-news organization. Besides the award-winning magazine, the San Francisco-based organization updates a news website, MotherJones.com, with breaking investigative stories throughout the day. In addition to its editors and network of expert freelancers, nonprofit Mother Jones now has a substantial staff of full-time reporters, including an eight-person Washington bureau.

In accepting the award at the American Society of Magazine Editors' awards ceremony in New York, Jeffery, who is expecting her first child in July, quipped, "Well, this is the second most exciting thing to happen to me this year.

"On behalf of Monika and myself," she continued, "I'd like to thank our amazingly smart, hard-working, and phenomenally good-looking staff for flourishing during what’s seemed at times like an Iron Man marathon."

Founded in 1976, Mother Jones has won five National Magazine Awards, including a 2001 nod for General Excellence and others in Reporting, Public Service, and Belles Lettres. It was a finalist in the General Excellence and Online Reporting categories in 2007, and in the Photojournalism category this year.

"I couldn't be prouder," said Mother Jones President and Publisher Jay Harris. "Pulling this off—nationally recognized excellence in print while launching a round-the-clock online news division—hasn't allowed for much sleep. But it's great to see these editors, and the reporting they bring to life, get the attention they deserve."