NPR Kicks GMA’s Butt

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Speaking of NPR, those guys are going great gangbusters, ratings-wise. Bucking the trend experienced by just about every other media outlet, NPR has seen major listenership growth in the past eight years, reaching a record in 2008. While there are no nationwide radio ratings, NPR adds up local ratings for stations that carry its programming, and that total has grown 47 percent since 2000, with nearly 21 million people tuning in to their daily news programs every week. Broken out into specific programs, this means that NPR’s “Morning Edition” has an average daily audience of 7.6 million, which the Washington Post says is “about 60 percent larger than the audience for ‘Good Morning America’ on ABC and about one-third larger than the audience for the ‘Today’ show on NBC.” Who knew?

Of course, as many of us in the non-profit world are aware, increased audience doesn’t necessarily translate to increased revenue. The broadcaster was recently forced to lay off 7 percent of its news staff due to revenue shortfalls (primarily because of a pullback in corporate giving) and they’re still about $8 million short for this year. At this risk of sparking flames of populist rage, I’d like to point out that NPR’s entire annual operating budget is $160 million, which happens to look pretty similar to another recent number, something to do with bonuses? Flames… of populist rage… rising…

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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