Punching Above Our Weight

It’s tough sometimes, when you’re a modestly sized, nonprofit newsroom, to look at the big dogs in journalism—the New York Times or CNN, with their thousands of journalists, or storied magazines like the New Yorker and the _Atlantic_—and not feel hopelessly outgunned. They can swarm dozens of journalists on a single story, or pay some $12,000 to duplicate a certain New York mayor’s luxe travel experience. They have fleets of publicists to make sure every success is amplified. Our staff has been known to couchsurf to get a story, air-gap computers with the help of epoxy glue, or enlist a relative to play the guitar for music on our sister radio show, Reveal.

Our newsroom is powered by the conviction of people who believe that journalism needs to exist.

Nevertheless, or maybe because of this, we’ve often punched above our weight when the time comes to hand out awards for the best work across our industry. But this year? This year we’re killing it. In the past several months we’ve won National Magazine Awards, Webbys, Polks, and duPonts; we’re a finalist for a Pulitzer and several Emmys—basically if there’s an honor to bestow on journalism, it has been bestowed upon us.

Each of those honors has a unique origin story, but they all have one thing in common: They are the result of the merger last year between Mother Jones and Reveal, a union that gave us the ability to dig deeper, tell stories more powerfully, and reach broader audiences.

At a dark time like this, it’s especially important to find reason for joy and celebration. And so we wanted to share details of some of those honors with you—because, in a very real way, they belong to you. The Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal, doesn’t have a corporate parent or billionaire sponsor. Our combined newsroom is powered by the conviction of many, many people who believe that journalism needs to exist, and who choose to support us with donations and subscriptions. So let’s look at some of the trophies we all earned together.

In May, we were selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer in Explanatory Reporting for “40 Acres and a Lie,” a years-in-the-making project in collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity. Reporters dug into a story that many Americans grew up hearing—that enslaved people were promised “40 acres and a mule” after the Civil War, something that never came to pass. We reported on a truth that was even more shocking: Many Black families were in fact given titles to land—across swaths of Georgia and the Carolinas—only to have it cruelly taken away and returned to their enslavers. The reporting team built an AI program to probe the handwritten records of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the federal agency charged with ensuring formerly enslaved people’s transition to freedom, to tell this story. Those records are a treasure trove of ancestral information for countless Americans, and this project has made them easily accessible and searchable for all.

This reporting also resulted in a three-part radio/podcast series, six in-depth features and essays, that AI database, a video, and a beautiful edition of this magazine. You can find them all right here.

The project also won a National Magazine Award “Ellie”—the Oscar of the magazine world. And it’s part of the reason that Mother Jones was chosen for General Excellence—think “Best Picture”—for coverage that also included our profile of a mass shooter’s mother and a full issue on American oligarchy, with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Donald Trump cavorting on the cover much as they would at the inauguration a year later. (That cover was also a finalist for the “Cover of the Year” award.)

The merger also allowed us to bring sassy but truthful reporting to video platforms where so many Americans—especially younger people—get their news. The Webby Awards just named our video correspondent, Garrison Hayes, Best Creator—of them all!—on social media. And our feature film The Grab, which investigates the global power struggle over who controls our water, has been nominated for four Emmys.

Another of our projects, this one in collaboration with the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, and focusing on how police pump families of people they have killed for information before they deliver the tragic news, received both a duPont and a Polk award, another of the highest honors in journalism.

Those are just the heaviest statuettes and paperweights we’ve collected of late. It’s a big haul, and amazing recognition for the hardest-working team, and the best community of support, in all of journalism. So here’s hoping that you’ll raise a glass to yourself. We’re so proud and honored to be part of this with you.