November 29, 2013

Black Friday Is Now Just a Dark Shade of Gray

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This year’s meme of the day—literally—is that Black Friday is just a bunch of meaningless hooey. To sample just a few: Neil Irwin tells us that Black Friday sales have no broad significance; David Lazarus says Black Friday crowds are losing out to the internet; Suzanne Kapner says Black Friday doorbusters are just an illusion; Lydia DePillis says Black Friday is a terrible and dangerous tradition; and the staff of the Christian Science Monitor this year debunks no fewer than 16 Black Friday myths.

Is it like this every year? Maybe. But I don’t remember quite such relentless dyspepsia over Black Friday in years past. Plenty of horror, shock, and disgust, to be sure, but not mere shoulder-shrugging dismissal. Because of this, I’m officially declaring that the Black Friday bubble has peaked. If you own stock in Black Friday Inc., it’s time to sell.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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