1/ Like many of you, I’ve spent time and treasure these last months fundraising for various front-line and neighborhood efforts to keep businesses afloat and people fed.
Now I’m going make the case for you to give to @motherjones if you can. secure.motherjones.com/flex/mj/key/7M…
Now I’m going make the case for you to give to @motherjones if you can. secure.motherjones.com/flex/mj/key/7M…
2/ Journalism is the immune system of democracy, as @MonikaBauerlein writes here. And, folks, it's crashing. 36,000 journalists have lost their jobs in last few weeks. At outlets once thought to be the solution to devastating cuts to local papers: motherjones.com/media/2020/05/…
3/ Like white blood cells, journalists activate when there's something infecting the body politic. They search out untruth, purge dishonesty, build resiliency. They take on cancers that nobody else can or will. Yeah, we're imperfect humans. But that at core is the mission.
4/ The media was already facing its own extinction crisis, with Google and Facebook taking all the revenue away, with predatory private equity firms gutting media companies and selling of the scraps. And then came COVID: motherjones.com/media/2020/05/… 
5/ Vaunted media companies—old and new—will not survive this, at least, not in anything remotely approximating their full vigor. Ad sales have cratered. No live events. No newsstand. Every single way media companies make money is gone. Except reader support.
6/ Now, here is where @MotherJones shines. And by shines I mean "may survive ~intact if supporters step up." Not a ton of our money comes through ads. People subscribe and donate and those people keep us stable. secure.motherjones.com/flex/mj/key/7M…
7/ And our readers are fantastic. Have off the charts metrics of working for the community even when times are good. So many teachers, librarians, social workers, people on the front lines of helping others.
8/ One of our biggest reporting priorities of this year was corruption. And when COVID hit, we pivoted to prioritizing how corruption (Trump's and others) was poisoning the federal government's response, how self-interest has trumped valiant efforts at collective action.
9/ This week we're finishing up an issue that is 100% dedicated to the comorbidities of COVID and corruption. Subscribe now and you'll get in a couple weeks. But I hope you'll consider giving more that a subscription. secure.motherjones.com/flex/mj/key/7M…
10/ Our staff is scared, like you. Working with little kids/barking dogs/ roommates driving them mad, like you. Worried about their jobs, like you. They are working their assess off, because journalism and the collective action that flows from it is the only hope we have.
11/ So we've been reporting our butts off. Preparing a historical record of what happened when, so Trump can't send it all down the memory hole. Here's a taste of a vast timeline of COVID project we're working on:
12/ And the first 100 days timeline in full. (And STILL there's more coming) motherjones.com/politics/2020/…
13/ We've done a few great COVID data projects that preceded the work of muuuuuuch bigger shops, like @Edwin_D_Rios and @cynduja, who really helped kick off the conversation about racial disparities: motherjones.com/coronavirus-up…
15/ Speaking of corruption, we've done a slew of stories on how various interests took advantage of the crisis to press for deregulation, like Big Plastic: motherjones.com/environment/20…
16/ We've helped contextualize the news, like this @jackiefmogensen piece on the sloppy science that is unfortunately getting too much oxygen right now: motherjones.com/politics/2020/…
17/ We've written about the science of antibodies from the perspective of gay men like @jameswest2010 who cannot donate plasma: motherjones.com/politics/2020/…
18/ @TedGenoways and @estherhonig investigated one a giant meatpacker's rush to put workers back on the line, no matter the risks: motherjones.com/food/2020/05/m…
19/ Yesterday, while walking the dog, I listened to this v. good episode of Hidden Brain, which explores the tension between acting in self-interest and acting for the greater good. Here's the thing, supporting journalism does both! podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6L…
20/ If you think that our country is currently being run by racist dipshit profiteers (speaking of which ⬇️ ) you need journalism that holds them to account, gives voters motivation them to turn out: motherjones.com/politics/2020/…
21/ Our journalism makes change. Last week, for example, @CoryBooker wrote to 22 banks, demanding answers on racial inequities in COVID-19 loans—inspired by reporting by @karavoght motherjones.com/politics/2020/…
22/ @sjmichaels' reporting helped pressure New York into giving TENS OF THOUSANDS of incarcerated people—who were making masks for others—access to PPE. motherjones.com/crime-justice/…
23/ Now the racial disparities re COVID are well known. But who was the first to create a data set to prove it? @Edwin_D_Rios and @cynduja motherjones.com/coronavirus-up…
24/ A refresher on why so many media layoffs. First ad traffic is up everywhere, but what scraps of the ad market not sucked away by Google and Facebook is plummeting. Because businesses are suffering and also they don't want their ads next to COVID content, which is ~all content
25/ A lot of media companies—had been making up for ad revenue by events. Those don't exists. Newsstand sales? Same.
Subscriptions take a long time to become "profitable" for media companies. They were priced too low for too long, and readers don't think of it as support.
Subscriptions take a long time to become "profitable" for media companies. They were priced too low for too long, and readers don't think of it as support.
26/As a non-profit @MotherJones has always had reader support on top of subs. But still a tiny fraction of our on-line readers support us. Among avid readers—like those who sign up to newsletters—it's about 10%. That's about NPR levels of conversion. secure.motherjones.com/flex/mj/key/7M…
27/ Because most of media was subsidized by advertising the public was trained to think of it as "free" (and not in the unbridled sense that that phrase was crafted to assert).
People pay hundreds of dollars a month for streaming, and balk at paying for journalism.
People pay hundreds of dollars a month for streaming, and balk at paying for journalism.
28/ Media purchases are a portfolio. Some are pure fun. Some are more obviously about democracy protection. Some are both! But you and me, as an investors in the future, need to think about what we support. Especially if it's something we already dearly value!
29/ Now public radio has the (grating but useful) advantage of being able to interrupt your listening to remind you to support it. Still only 10% of people do.
I only have this twitter thread. But I'm sure there are people out there who value our work and want to support it.
I only have this twitter thread. But I'm sure there are people out there who value our work and want to support it.
30/ MoJo has been able to weather calamities before because we have diversified revenue: subs, ads, donations, events, but especially because we don't rely on one or two rich people or foundations. We have a more egalitarian base of support. And that's huge.
