Mother Jones Magazine

Founded in 1976, Mother Jones is an independent, nonprofit magazine whose roots lie in a commitment to social justice implemented through first-rate investigative reporting. Winner of a 2001 National Magazine Award in General Excellence, Mother Jones has been nominated for National Magazine Awards nine times and has won four times. Mother Jones has twice been named "Best in the Business" for investigative reporting by the American Journalism Review, and won the 2000 Alternative Press Award for General Excellence.

Monika Bauerlein, Editor

Monika Bauerlein started her journalistic career by typing other people's manuscripts in archaic word processors, and researching politics for a Middle Eastern helicopter merchant. As a freelancer in New York and Washington, D.C. in the late 1980s, she covered the negotiations to end the first Gulf War and the 1988 presidential campaign; during graduate school at the University of Minnesota, she filed stories for the AP and a range of newspapers, magazines, and public radio programs, with an emphasis on politics and environmental coverage. She was a writer, managing editor, and interim editor at City Pages, the Village Voice's sister paper in Minneapolis/St. Paul and came to Mother Jones as features editor in 2000. At the magazine, she has focused on developing political and investigative reportage and has spearheaded the magazine's new Investigative Team and Washington bureau.

Clara Jeffery, Editor

Before joining the staff of Mother Jones in 2002 as deputy editor, Clara Jeffery was a senior editor of Harper’s magazine, where she worked for almost seven years. Seven pieces that she edited have been finalists for National Magazine Awards, in the categories of essay, profile, reporting (two), public interest (two), and fiction. Work Jeffery edited has also been selected to appear in various editions of Best American Essays, Best American Travel Writing, Best American Sports Writing, and Best American Science Writing. While at Harper’s, she also conceived and organized a series of public forums broadcast on WNYC. Previously, Jeffery worked at Washington City Paper, where she wrote and edited political, investigative, and narrative features, and was a columnist.

Jeffery received an MSJ from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism in 1993 and graduated from Carleton College in 1989. She grew up in Arlington, Virginia, and attended the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.

Jay Harris, Publisher
Jay Harris is the publisher of Mother Jones magazine and chief executive officer of Mother Jones' non-profit parent, the Foundation for National Progress. During his tenure, the organization has built on its tradition of groundbreaking public interest reporting while growing circulation to unprecedented levels. By fall 2003 paid circulation of the magazine had reached 226,000, putting Mother Jones among the largest of American thought-leader magazines. In 2001 Mother Jones was awarded the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, its fourth NMA. In 2003 the publication was again a finalist for that award.

Believing that Mother Jones' investigative content and its 28-year-old brand have importance and audience potential beyond print media, Jay has overseen the 1993 launch  and development of MotherJones.com, Mother Jones' popular web site,  and has negotiated deals to supply Mother Jones material to both "Inside Edition" and PBS's "Frontline." (The first hour-long documentary from Mother Jones Television, "Easy Money," a report on gambling money in politics, appeared on "Frontline" in June 1997.) Other media projects are pending.

Jay is a frequent radio and television guest, appearing on Talk of the Nation, C-Span and many other shows, and has been a featured speaker at conferences of the Social Venture Network, Greenfest, Bioneers and Businesses for Social Responsibility. He has taught magazine management at the University of California Graduate School of Journalism. His essay on the state of the news business – “What’s Missing from Your News?” – was published in The Business of Journalism (New Press, 2000).

Jay is vice chair of the Independent Press Association and on the steering committee of the Magazine Publishers of America Independent Magazine Advisory Group (IMAG). He recently join the board of advisors of Free Speech TV.

Before joining Mother Jones in 1991, Jay was general manager of Newsweek's Pacific edition, based in Hong Kong, with oversight of circulation programs in 24 Asian and South Pacific nations. Before that, from 1985 through 1988, he was publisher of the Asia edition of Travel & Leisure magazine. From 1982 to 1985, after graduating from the Yale School of Management, he worked in New York for Newsweek International where he was assistant director, then director of special projects. He holds a B.A. in English from Duke University and a masters in management from the Yale School of Management.