Roger Cohn

Former Editor-in-Chief, Mother Jones
March 1, 2006 - 4:00pm

About Roger Cohn

Roger Cohn, the former Editor-in-Chief of Mother Jones magazine, is currently a consulting editor for major magazines and a lecturer at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. During his tenure at Mother Jones, from 1999 through 2004, Cohn revitalized the magazine by focusing on in-depth, investigative reporting and top-quality writing, winning the prestigious National Magazine Award for General Excellence, the Independent Press Association Award for General Excellence (twice), and numerous other journalistic and publishing honors. The magazine also frequently broke stories that had impact on the national media, including the first in-depth report on the origins of the faulty government intelligence that led the United States into the Iraq war.

Prior to editing Mother Jones, Cohn was Executive Editor of Audubon magazine from 1991 to 1998, leading the magazine during a period when it gained a national reputation for its cutting-edge environmental reporting. From 1977 to 1987, Cohn was a staff writer with The Philadelphia Inquirer, focusing on various issues, including urban affairs, politics, and the environment. He was awarded an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship in 1985 for his reporting on the federal public housing system; and in 1980, he was part of a team of Inquirer reporters and editors who won the Pulitzer Prize for News Reporting for coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident.

Cohn has written widely for numerous publications, including The New York Times MagazineThe Washington PostThe Los Angeles TimesThe New RepublicWashington Monthly, and Outside. At the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, he teaches an intensive magazine writing workshop for students completing their Master’s projects.