Mother Jones’ Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

A grid of sepia toned headshot photographs showing people of a variety of races and genders.
Our country is beginning to reckon with its history of discrimination against marginalized communities. We believe that confronting systemic inequalities is important not only to our news coverage but to our profession at large as well as our organizational culture. We recognize this is a long-term journey, and that acknowledging and learning from failure is part of the process. The Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal, recognizes that our success depends on creating a home for exceptional professionals that reflects the diversity of our society, respects and rewards the perspectives and contributions of each staff member, and redresses past inequities.

The Center for Investigative Reporting aims to create an organization where:

  • Everyone feels safe to bring their best selves;
  • Everyone feels that they belong; and
  • Everyone knows success is based on contributing in meaningful ways.

The Center for Investigative Reporting is working to make those goals a reality by:

  • Prioritizing inclusion in recruiting and hiring;
  • Training staff on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) principles;
  • Training supervisors on DEIB-informed management;
  • Building relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions; and
  • Implementing DEIB benchmarks for the entire organization.
 

Initiatives

  • Recruiting: The Center for Investigative Reporting’s recruiting process ensures a diverse group of job applicants and staff interviewers. Of candidates who receive first-round phone interviews, 30 percent must be people of color and 30 percent must be women. Our interview panels include at least one staff member who identifies as female and one who identifies as a person of color. Both arrangements are monitored by the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Diversity Committee.
  • Pay Equity: In an effort to be transparent with job candidates, most postings include a minimum salary.
  • DEIB Training: To ensure the principles of DEIB are implemented in the workplace, all managers are required to participate in DEIB seminars conducted by The Management Center, a nonprofit leadership training organization as well as in-house training.
  • Fellowships: The Center for Investigative Reporting’s fellowship program is dedicated to providing best-in-class training to emerging journalists, with a focus on those from historically marginalized backgrounds. In our 2024 cohort of fellows, almost half identify as people of color and almost half identify as female or nonbinary. Our fellows have gone on to work in all of the nation’s top newsrooms, and many have found employment at Mother Jones.
  • Outreach: The Center for Investigative Reporting recognizes the next generation of journalists includes university students, and has prioritized outreach and training to BIPOC students in journalism programs.
 

Benefits

  • Health Care: We cover the entire premium for health coverage for staff and their dependents; we cover travel and lodging expenses for an employee or dependent who must travel out of state for an abortion because it is illegal in their state of residence; and we cover gender-affirming surgery for employees and dependents.
  • Juneteenth: Since 2020, our organization has observed Juneteenth as a paid holiday each year.
  • Union Membership: Since the 1980s, our organization’s non-managerial employees have been represented by UAW Local 2103, with a collective bargaining agreement that determines wages and benefits.
 

Staff Demographics

  • Composition of the Center for Investigative Reporting’s overall staff (as of June 30, 2024)


  • Composition of the Center for Investigative Reporting’s senior leadership (as of June 30, 2024)
    A chart in the form of a circle with the text: 38 percent people of color.
    A chart in the form of a circle with the text: 75 percent female.

 

Social Impact Reporting

The Center for Investigative Reporting focuses on reporting that looks out for the little guy and boosts marginalized voices that have historically been ignored. We prioritize our audience’s desire for impact, showing how bad actors work and what positive change would look like. We expose wrongdoing and villains—and spotlight those who do battle with both. Above all, we seek to inform and engage and expand our audiences, because the identity of a Mother Jones reader and Reveal listener is someone who wants to learn, and then take that knowledge to make change.

No surprise, then, that a key factor differentiating the Center for Investigative Reporting from other journalistic voices has always been that our work is informed by a commitment to justice and a fuller democracy—values that we are proud to wear on our sleeve.

Below are just a few stories that highlight this work.