With Romney Videos, Mother Jones Keeps Readers Coming Back

September 18, 2012, 2:56 pm

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

It's a good day to be at Mother Jones.

The magazine, which has a circulation of slightly more than 200,000, found itself read by millions of viewers around the world by Tuesday morning after it released a video of Mitt Romney at a fund-raiser calling 47 percent of the public “dependent” and feeling entitled.

Clara Jeffery, a co-editor of Mother Jones, said that after the first story was posted around 1:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, Mother Jones received just shy of two million page views. She said that was double the magazine's previous 24-hour record.

Ms. Jeffery said the magazine would post another video Tuesday afternoon. Mother Jones decided to release the video in parts for several reasons.

“We felt that there were two main stories. There was Romney's characterization of Obama voters and there was the foreign policy angle,” she said. “We felt that both those stories were to get a full airing.”

Ms. Jeffery said the magazine was also working through some production issues because they were asked by the source who provided the video to blur the surroundings of the room so that only Romney would be identifiable.

“The source has since lifted that restriction,” said Ms. Jeffery. “It's not that much more telling. You see the backs of people's heads.”