February 3, 1998

Hotmail Corp.

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Hotmail Corp.
To lure more users to MSN, Microsoft bought Hotmail on the eve of New Year’s Day 1998 for an estimated $395 million. A leading Web-based provider of free electronic mail, Hotmail currently counts more than 10 million active subscribers, and is adding 70,000 per day. Now these millions must access their free e-mail through a Gates-owned Web site that steers them to MSN—a traffic boost that should allow MSN to boost its ad rates.

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DECEMBER IS MAKE OR BREAK

A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

The December 31 deadline is closing in fast. To reach our $400,000 goal, we need readers who’ve never given before to join the ranks of MoJo donors. And we need our steadfast supporters to give again—any amount today.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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