Case Study: Mother Jones Creating a Thriving Legacy News Magazine through Mission, Strategy, and Experimentation

Abstract

In February 2012, the nonprofit news organization Mother Jones published a seemingly ordinary story that would prove to change its fate. The story profiled a Republican donor, Frank VanderSloot, and among other things, his treatment of a gay journalist. Shortly thereafter, VanderSloot and his company, Melaleuca Inc., filed a defamation lawsuit against Mother Jones, beginning a nearly three-year saga that ended in 2015 with a judge in Idaho ruling in the magazine’s favor. “All of the statements at issue are non-actionable truth or substantial truth,” the judge found, protected as fair comment under the First Amendment. Throughout the ordeal, the leaders at Mother Jones made two choices that illustrated strategic decisions. They were decisions that would make a striking difference for Mother Jones’ future as not only one of the oldest nonprofit news outlets but also one of the most successful.