John Shuttleworth, Founder of Mother Earth News, Interview Part II

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John and Jane Shuttleworth started MOTHER EARTH NEWS in 1970.
John and Jane Shuttleworth started MOTHER EARTH NEWS in 1970.
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Lake Erie cottage in which MOTHER EARTH NEWS was born.
Lake Erie cottage in which MOTHER EARTH NEWS was born.
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MOTHER EARTH NEWS 1973 layout done in an attic.
MOTHER EARTH NEWS 1973 layout done in an attic.
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1973: Ann Ruck and Polly Ludwig help Jane set MOTHER EARTH NEWS type.
1973: Ann Ruck and Polly Ludwig help Jane set MOTHER EARTH NEWS type.
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MOTHER EARTH NEW'S last shipping room before leaving Ohio.
MOTHER EARTH NEW'S last shipping room before leaving Ohio.
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Gary Brooks runs a printing press in North Carolina.
Gary Brooks runs a printing press in North Carolina.
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Julie Needham helps sweat out the copy for a MOTHER EARTH NEWS issue.
Julie Needham helps sweat out the copy for a MOTHER EARTH NEWS issue.

Five years ago, with only $1,500 in operating capital and a kitchen table to work on, John and Jane Shuttleworth founded The MOTHER EARTH NEWS. The publication has since grown into a circulation of 250,000 and has “spunoff” a mail-order general store, a syndicated newspaper column, a syndicated. radio program, and several environmentally oriented research projects.

But why? Why did the Shuttleworth’s found MOTHER EARTH NEWS in the first place? And why has the magazine grown so lustily during a period that has seen many other environmental and alternatives publications come and go? And where is MOTHER EARTH NEWS headed now? And why?

John Shuttleworth answered some of those questions in the first half of our two-part interview. Now, in the closing portion of that interview, he gives away more of the secrets of MOTHER EARTH NEWS success.

Shuttleworth next explains how anyone he says can predict the future with accuracy and names some of the people whom he feels have done so in the past. He then closes by listing some of his own rather black forecasts … and the steps he feels we must take immediately if we expect to save ourselves, humanity, and the planet during the cataclysmic times he sees lying just ahead.

John, you’ve evaded the question long enough. Just what is “positioning”? And how have you used it to make MOTHER EARTH NEWS grow so rapidly during the past five years years that have seen a great number of other — and often far better financed — environmental and alternatives publications come and go?

  • Published on Mar 1, 1975
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