The Center for Investigative Reporting

Filing Period

Jan 1, 2012 to Dec 31, 2012

Signed

May 13, 2013

Return Version

2012v2.1

Gross Receipts

$11,940,791

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

Ben bagdikian fellowship program:since 1980, mother jones has placed such emphasis on creating opportunities for aspiring journalists through the ben bagdikian fellowship program. The program is named in recognition of bagdikian's many contributions to journalism--as an investigative report for the washington post who helped break the pentagon papers story; as a media critic who put the problem of media consolidation on the public agenda; and as an educator who helped guide the journalism program at the university of california, berkeley, into the digital era. Ben's professional record, his personal integrity, and his commitment to social justice inspired us to name mother jones' internship program in his honor.while there are a number of general journalism and reporting internships available for students or recent college graduates, only mother jones puts such an emphasis on investigative reporting. Among the largest training rpograms in the independent media community, the ben bagdikian fellowship program gives aspiring journalists intensive training in what it takes to publish outstanding, independent journalism, to meet deadlines, and to work as part of a professional team.the ben bagdikian fellowship program is arare opportunity for new journalists to work alongside some of the top reporters and journalists in the business, and to learn the inner workings of multimedia national reporting with a special focus on investigative journalism. Depending on funding availability, the program also offers internships for those interested in art and photography, nonprofit public affairs and social media, and the business and technology side of publishing. Graduates leave with practical knowledge, work that they can be proud of, and a network of friends and colleagues that will last a lifetime.mother jones' training program is an essential if also unrecognized element of american journalism's intrastructure. Of the nearly 800 interns and fellows who have passed through mother jones' internship program since 1980, more than half moved on to a career in journalism or the media at some of the nation's most prestigious media outlets. Graduates of the program work throughout the national media world at outlets ranging from the new york times and the wall street journal to national public radio and salon.com.

Activity 3

The climate desk:mother jones organized and manages a first-of-its-kind partnership designed to cover climate change from multiple perspectives with a lively, broadly popular format. Reaching a potential audience of nearly 30 million people, climate desk partners include mother jones, the atlantic, wired, slate.com, grist.org, the center for investigative reporting, pbs' "need to know," and--as of february 2012--the uk guardian.during calendar 2012, the climate desk anchor team produced 80 stories that were directly viewed by minimum of 1.1 million people via the climate desk youtube channel or at the websites of the eight partners. Actual reach is significantly higher, since this counts only direct "hits" to the climate desk's youtube site or partner sites and only if the partners remember to embed a tracking code when they post a climate desk story (one of the projects for 2013 is to develop a more accurate method of tracking total audience reach).partners tell us that the climate desk provides them with an invaluable way to augment their climate coverage: by sharing their own original work with a bigger audience, and by having access to a suite of top-flight reporters and editorial staff across the partnership to cover a beat they recognize as important but have not been able to devote consisent resources to. They can choose from an a la carte menu of content each week to best suit their needs. High-turnover websites like the atlantic favor climate desk's blog posts, slide shows and daily reporting, while weekly programs like need to know prefer our longer-format, more richly-produced features. If a partner produced the content themselves, it might prove cost prohibitive. In addition, the partners have also been very excited to participate in climate desk's path breaking work with new technologies and formats for storytelling, social media, and data visualization.in the fall of 2012, the climate desk also added climate desk live, a biweekly breakfast briefing hosted by science journalist chris mooney that is designed to elevate the beltway discussion about climate issues. Targeting policy makers, legislative staff, advocates, and media representatives, cdl's briefings have brought together standing-room-only audiences and begun to generate attention in the beltway media, too.looking ahead, thanks to expanded donor support, in 2013 the climate desk will add a full-time project director and the core of a second production team.

Filer

EIN

94-2282759