Broadly speaking, in the past few years, we've more than doubled the editorial staff [in Mother Jones], as part of ramping up daily operations that have resulted in huge gains in audience, a slew of awards, new multimedia endeavors, and of course scoops like the 47 percent.
Clara JefferyPrint works! It works as a business proposition - our print readers [of the Mother Jones] not only provide revenue in the form of subs and ads, but they are a core part of our donor community; 10 percent give us a donation on top of their subscription; that's about the same rate as NPR gets from its listeners.
Clara JefferyWe do a lot of "capital I" important stories, but one I'd highlight is the work we've done on guns, not only for the acclaim it's gotten but also because it showcases all the different kinds formats we use. So we compiled a database of all the variables of all the mass shootings in America - work the government doesn't do, thanks to the NRA - which allowed us to surface patterns and make data visualizations of it.
Clara JefferyWe started out covering income inequality in the magazine [Mother Jones], but that ongoing body of work positioned - and sourced - us well to put both Occupy and the 47 percent in context.
Clara JefferyWe made an amazing video about Newtown's struggle to figure out what to do with all the letters and art sent to the town.
Clara JefferyWe love the flexibility that print and digital formats give us, and diving deep on a print feature can be one step in a longer project that generates a lot of digital stories.
Clara JefferyIt is a great vehicle for storytelling, especially for a certain kind of exhaustively reported, painstakingly fact-checked, and beautifully produced narrative.
Clara Jeffery