February 14, 2011

Weekend Miscellany

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Just a bit of weekend miscellany:

  • As of this writing, my Friday post about Glenn Beck has gotten 466 comments. This is — by far — the most comments I’ve ever gotten on a post since I moved to Mother Jones. So I dived in to see why. Answer: a Beckian true believer named Suzanne somehow discovered the post and wrote the very first comment. As near as I can tell, the entire rest of the comment thread is either directly or indirectly a response to Suzanne, not a comment on the blog post per se. There’s no real moral here, just a demonstration of the power of the first mover.
     
  • The Egyptian government released Wael Ghonim from detention on February 7. Four days later Hosni Mubarak was toast. I wonder how many Arab regimes are drawing the obvious lesson from this?
     
  • Maybe Michael Hiltzik is just an old codger who doesn’t know a good thing when it smacks him in the face. Maybe I am too. But the valuations of any site that can somehow pass itself off as “social networking” have gotten awfully eye-popping lately, and that sure brings back memories. Plus this: “It’s not just the numbers that transport one to bygone times; it’s the familiar trappings of frenzy. There are the same explanations that what’s important isn’t actual revenues, but eyeballs, and the lionization of venture investors who thus far have proved themselves wholly capable of shoveling the money out, not yet of shoveling it back in….Maybe one of these hot companies is the next Google. But it’s more likely that these prices are insane.”
     
  • I hate loyalty cards. A few days ago I was buying some books at Borders (gotta use up my gift cards before they go bust!) and dropped into a nearby Petco to buy some litter and cat food. Do you want to join our loyalty program? asked the cashier. Nope. Are you sure? You’ll save mumble mumble dollars. No. Just ring me up. Thanks.

    I wasn’t really paying attention, and it was only when I was halfway home that I realized he had said “nine dollars.” Nine dollars? Sure enough, a pair of items that would cost about $28 even at my expensive local grocery store had set me back $35. So we’ve gotten to the point, at Petco at least, where you can’t simply drop in casually to buy something if you happen to be in the area. Unless you’re willing to sign up for their loyalty program, you’re going to pay fantastically more than the ordinary retail price for stuff. This really pisses me off. And needless to say, I’ll never drop into a Petco again.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate