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KQED's Forum

What Does the Merger of SF-Based Mother Jones Magazine and CIR Mean for Investigative Journalism?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The magazine Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), which produces the podcast Reveal, will be merging. Based in the Bay Area, the two news organizations both work on a nonprofit model and are known for their deeply reported investigative pieces. The two organizations share a long and collaborative history, and have done joint stories in the past such as the 2021 piece on sugar plantations that led the U.S. government to ban imports from the company in question. We’ll talk to the leaders of both news outlets about their plans and what the merger means for local and national journalism.  Guests: Clara Jeffery, editor in chief, Mother Jones Al Letson, host, Center for Investigative Reporting's radio show and podcast "Reveal" Robert Rosenthal, CEO, Center for Investigative Reporting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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From KQED. From KQED.

1:23.9

From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. There is big news in the journalism world.

1:27.1

The magazine Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces the podcast reveal, will be merging.

1:34.3

Based in the Bay Area, both news organizations work on a non-profit model and are known for their deep reporting.

1:40.7

They share along in collaborative history and have done joint stories in the past.

1:45.0

We'll talk to the leaders of both news outlets about their plans and what the merger means

1:50.0

for local and national journalism at a time when our industry is in shambles.

1:55.0

That's all coming up next after this news. News. Welcome to Forum. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. As business, journalism has been in a bad place for many years.

2:19.6

Unlike the days when daily newspapers and magazines were big and booming, there's no clear path

2:25.7

to a sustainable model to support investigative reporting. That's led to a torrent of experimentation,

2:32.2

especially in non-profit journalism. Two leading lights, organizations that have succeeded in doing the work of our field

2:39.0

and sustaining themselves financially are Mother Jones, the magazine,

2:43.0

and the Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces the fantastic podcast reveal.

2:48.0

So when we heard that they were merging, we wanted to have on their leaders to talk

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