Mother Jones is merging with the Center for Investigative Reporting

Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting will merge next year to create a single nonprofit news outlet.

The two organizations, both based in San Francisco, have a decades-long history of collaboration. Mother Jones, a progressive website and print magazine, began in 1976. The Center for Investigative Reporting was founded a year later and is known for the public radio show and podcast “Reveal,” as well as its documentary film division.

Talks to join only began “in earnest” this year, Mother Jones CEO Monika Bauerlein said.

“There is a lot more nonprofit journalism emerging and there is a lot of concern about the state of local journalism, but investigative journalism has taken a bit of a back seat,” Ms. Bauerlein said. “It is under enormous threat, especially at a local level, and that is why we felt that by joining forces we could provide some counterbalance to the eroding investigative reporting.”

The merger is scheduled for early next year. Ms. Bauerlein will become CEO, while Robert J. Rosenthal, CEO of the Center for Investigative Reporting, will become Chief Executive Officer Emeritus. Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief of Mother Jones, will lead the combined newsroom, which will consist of more than 70 people. Al Letson, host of “Reveal” since 2013, will continue in his role.

Ms. Bauerlein said the merger would result in “a very small number” of redundancies on the administrative side. The nonprofits have $21 million committed over the next three years by foundations and donors, she said.

Ms Jeffery said journalists would collaborate on investigative projects that would be published on multiple platforms including online, print, audio and video. She said the organization would work on a “multi-pronged effort to reach existing audiences, reach new, younger and more diverse audiences and have multiple forms of income” to ensure they could continue to provide open access to their work without a paywall.

“We want to make sure the stories we create are always available to everyone,” she says.