Sustaining and Increasing Attention to Nuclear Risk

We aim to continue to grow, sustain, and connect a global network of experts and thought leaders with an expanding global audience, each cultivated over 75 years. To do so we are investing in a four-pronged approach:

• Attract and support a new generation of writers and experts;
• Grow and sustain a global audience advocating for a safe and secure planet;
• Connect the two through new partnerships;
• Enhance our fundraising capacity to support these efforts.

We are optimistic about our approach and can show that it has been working. Over the past five years, the Bulletin’s audience has skyrocketed from 1.8 million unique views in 2018 to 4.4 million in 2020 and 6.2 million unique views in 2022. Throughout this explosive growth, the Bulletin has maintained a coveted demographic reach: nearly half of our audience is younger than 35, and 50% comes from outside the United States. Our gender demographic has shifted from 25% to 35% female.

Over the last year, large audiences have once-again turned to the Bulletin, this time to better understand the causes and consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Bulletin’s immediate response to covering the conflict, and our ability to provide real-time coverage in the first few weeks of war, was highly received and commented on by experts and advocates alike. The Bulletin’s Ukraine coverage received 3.8 million pageviews in the weeks following the outbreak of war. Well established media leaders noted that the Bulletin sustained its audience and coverage long after other outlets lost interest and became distracted by other stories. Even prior to the invasion, one leading organization recognized the Bulletin as one of six organizations “critical to the nuclear dialogue” and a “trusted and effective organization at this challenging moment and in our future.”

The Bulletin is also a top resource for countless media organizations seeking to substantiate their own coverage. Since January 2019:

• The Washington Post has cited and linked to Bulletin articles at least 117 times
• The Guardian has cited and linked to Bulletin articles Bulletin articles at least 140 times
• CNN has cited and linked to Bulletin articles at least 83 times
• The New York Times has cited and linked to Bulletin articles at least 56 times
• The Atlantic has cited and linked to Bulletin articles at least 36 times
• The BBC has cited and linked to Bulletin articles at least 27 times
• Bloomberg News has cited and linked to Bulletin articles at least 22 times

The Bulletin is reaching a larger audience while continuing to engage leaders influential in their respective fields.

LONG-TERM OUTCOMES

To reduce the risk of nuclear use (either by design or miscalculation), we seek three long-term outcomes:

1. A global citizenry, armed with authoritative and independent analyses, advocating to reduce manmade threats to human existence.
2. An engaged and innovative next generation of thought leaders and experts devising ways to govern science and technology’s advancement.
3. A network of new partners and collaborators, spanning issue-areas and approaches, that reinforces and amplifies each other’s respective efforts.

ACTIVITY DETAILS

To make progress towards these ends we intend to:

• Attract and support a new generation of thought leaders and experts;
• Grow and sustain a global audience advocating for a safe and secure planet;
• Connect the two through new partnerships;
• Enhance our fundraising capacity to support these efforts.

Attract and support a new generation of thought leaders and experts

The Bulletin will continue to invest in its Next Generation initiatives including its Board Fellows program, its Editorial Fellows program, its Voices of Tomorrow column, its Rieser award, and continue to feature emerging leaders in its public programs and on its platforms. These programs and initiatives were created to support and enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion among the next generation of leaders, and have strengthened the Bulletin’s offerings.

To do this, we must continue to recruit, develop, and retain a talented staff, those deeply engaged in the issues and committed to working with a wide array of experts. It is our editors, working in partnership with experts in the field, who are key to identifying up-and-coming experts, and mentor them as appropriate.

• Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Talented Staff

The Bulletin is not immune to today’s heated job market nor the effects COVID has had on the global workforce. The Bulletin has added or replaced eleven part and full-time staff positions in the past 18-months. Five of the positions were newly created based on growth, and six positions replaced staff who retired or moved to other opportunities.

Our most recent staff additions directly support our strategy. For example, John Pope, the Bulletin’s new Chief Audience Officer, brings a strong background in working with leading experts, organizations, and community advocates at the intersection of national security, and the media, with a special focus on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. John joins the Bulletin from ReThink Media, where he served as Director.

John’s arrival is the capstone of a transformational period for the Bulletin’s digital outreach operations. A small shop of one full-time and one part-time employee just a few years ago, our digital communications team is now composed of a Chief Audience Officer, Assistant Director of Digital Operations, Brand Manager, and Social Media Coordinator. Together, the team is investing increased time and resources in finding and engaging audiences in new and innovative ways.

The Bulletin has also added François Diaz-Maurin as its associate editor covering nuclear risk. Operating from Barcelona Spain, François has strong connections in the nuclear field, and we have seen our nuclear coverage deepen and strengthen with his arrival, especially, but not limited to, around events unfolding in Europe. Francois has served as a scientific advisor to members of the European Parliament on nuclear issues, and he is a founding member of the Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy network (ELEEP) of the Atlantic Council, Washington D.C. and the Ecologic Institute, Berlin. An engineer by training, he received post-doctoral training on nuclear materials, geochemistry and radionuclides, and nuclear security at Stanford University 2017-2019.

The Bulletin was also thrilled to announce Sara Goudarzi as its Disruptive Technology editor. With an M.A. in journalism from New York University and an M.S. in engineering from Rutgers University, Sara’s writings have appeared in Scientific American, The New York Times, National Geographic News, The Christian Science monitor, CNN.com, The Globe and Mail, Scholastic’s Science World magazine, and elsewhere. Sara is tackling issues of artificial intelligence, among other topics, and is recruiting pieces on the interface between AI, the future of journalism and nuclear risk.

The strength of our editorial and communications staff was instrumental in handling the fast-breaking events after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During the eight-to-twelve-week period following the invasion of Ukraine, the editorial and communications team learned how to pace its coverage and communication efforts – toggling from staff generated coverage, to expert analysis, and back to staff generated reporting while maintaining a consistent push to reach audience and share content across media platforms and outlets. This helped fill gaps when experts were trying to make sense of fast-changing events, and helped our team stand back a bit when experts were ready to engage. We also tested new ways to deepen engagement with our editorial content through social media and virtual programs.

The Bulletin’s editorial and communications team also worked closely to ensure the success of François Diaz-Maurin’s major investigative report, “Nowhere to hide: How a nuclear war would kill you—and almost everyone else,” (https://tinyurl.com/zbzwza4v). The piece reverberated around the world, in large part because of its relevance to the war in Ukraine. Since its publication in October 2022, the article has garnered more than 675,000 pageviews.

“Nowhere to hide” was conceived as a response to a growing sentiment among some leaders and the public that a nuclear attack is survivable or winnable. Specifically, the article critiqued the false sense of security conveyed by items like New York City’s public service announcement on what to do if a nuclear bomb hits the city. It also helped amplify new research by Alan Robock and his team about nuclear winter and the consequences of even a regional exchange. The piece reintroduced the concept of nuclear winter to a new generation of readers, many who are not fully aware of the consequences of even a regional nuclear exchange. “Nowhere to hide” was discussed broadly in the media, including MSNBC that aired an in-depth segment.

We aim to continue to invest in and nurture our existing staff to continue to work with leading experts across a variety of topics and perspectives. They are also instrumental to the success of the Bulletin’s Next Generation initiatives, as they help identify new authors and work tirelessly beside them as mentors and guides in the writing and outreach process.

• Investing in Next Generation Initiatives

To maintain our commitment to supporting new voices and ensuring a diversity of columnists who reflect the perspectives and experiences of our global audience, the Bulletin invests significantly in its Next Generation program, including its Voices of Tomorrow column and annual Rieser Award. Its newest initiative, the Bulletin’s Editorial Fellows program, was piloted in Fall 2022 and will continue for a third year during the 2023/24 fiscal year. The program is designed to attract, support, and compensate a cohort of emerging experts, with an explicit focus on increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Since the program’s inception, Editorial Fellows have published over 20 columns on nuclear risk (10), disruptive technology, and climate change. Now in its second year, we have revamped the program in response to learnings from experience, including the significant time investment required by the Bulletin staff and Fellows. In 2022/23 we welcomed four rather than seven editorial fellows, one each in nuclear risk, climate change, disruptive tech, and biosecurity. Paired with a Bulletin editor serving as both colleague and mentor, Fellows are expected to produce one article per quarter, rather than one a month. In 2023/24, we aim to develop writing workshops, networking events, and other Bulletin supported activities among the Fellows and the alums. We are also considering adding a multimedia fellow as part of the Editorial Fellows program.

This year, newly-minted alumni of the program served as featured experts in Bulletin programs and continue to contribute to the Bulletin’s publication. The Bulletin aims to continue supporting the Editorial Fellows program, and the efforts of our editors to expand their global network of issue experts and investigative reporting in ways that actively reflect our diverse audience.

The Voices of Tomorrow column continues to invite rising experts to submit essays, opinion pieces, and multimedia presentations addressing at least one of the Bulletin's core issues. At the end of each year, the Bulletin’s editorial team announces the Leonard M. Rieser Award recipient. The Rieser Award is the capstone of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Next Generation Program, created to ensure that new voices, steeped in science and public policy, have a trusted platform from which to address the world’s existential challenges. The Rieser Award was established to recognize outstanding emerging science and security experts passionate about advancing peace and security in our time. Inaugurated in 2015, the award is given annually and is selected by the Bulletin’s editorial team from among the publication's Voices of Tomorrow essayists. The awardee receives $1,000, a one-year subscription to the Bulletin’s magazine, re-publication of their article in the Bulletin’s annual report, and an invitation to address the Bulletin’s audience at its annual signature event, Conversations before Midnight.

Recent public talks to young audiences include: Bulletin Editor, John Meklin, lead an International Student/Young Pugwash seminar on international, inter-generational and interdisciplinary conversation on nuclear weapons, emerging technologies, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation in the 21st century; Mecklin attended and spoke at an Atomic Reporters gathering in New Mexico; Mecklin will also attend and present at 2-day convening on how to write an op ed for the Truman National Security Project as part of their nuclear justice, advocacy and DEI initiative for new or PhD candidates; and Bulletin President and CEO, Rachel Bronson, spoke to a group of rising nuclear leaders with the Truman Institute as part of a MacArthur Foundation funded workshop.

Grow and engage a global audience advocating for a safer and more secure planet

One of the Bulletin’s most distinctive contributions to the nuclear field is its global reach. Instrumental to our growth in this area has been hiring a Chief Audience Officer, increasing the size and strength of our communications team, and providing the means to invest in new technologies and experimental efforts.

In the fast-changing world of media and content delivery platforms, innovation and experimentation reign supreme. The Bulletin’s newsletter is the most effective way to engage with our global audience, sharing new research and content twice a week. The Bulletin reached its goal of increasing subscribers from 40,000 to 80,000 in 3 years, with currently 100,000 subscribers and growing. Our subscribers are global, from high-level security practitioners to local grass root activists. We have also made it much easier to subscribe to our magazine, which is also found in nearly 10,000 leading research libraries and centers worldwide.

We’ve also focused on and improved SEO, experimented with messaging and headlines through A/B testing, increased the speed of our site, conducted Facebook look-alike campaigns, built out our Twitter following and surveyed our audience. And now, as Twitter’s stumbles, we are building on previous successes on YouTube, and responding to the changing platform algorithms. We will use video, especially short video, as a way to increase our discoverability and expand our audience funnel.

As a result of consultations with other media organizations, the Bulletin’s communications team plans to refine its metrics, internal programs and processes, and goals over the next three years. We intend to codifying internal brand guidelines and create corresponding templates to make for a more cohesive experience for audiences across platforms. This will assist with creating a similar look and feel when promoting editorial features and events on all social networks and help deepen audience connection and familiarity with the Bulletin. From this base we can then be more creative with campaigns that reinforce each other across the different social networks, including an expanded focus on video.

We are also looking to experiment with short run "pop-up" newsletters that can capture new audiences interested in particular subtopics. During this year's Doomsday Clock announcement for example, a trial run of this approach generated 1,700 new email signups in a matter of weeks. Finally, we're looking to increase our earned media footprint. This includes increased coverage of the brand and the organization to increase our visibility to audiences broadly and also increasing the media profile of individual editors through interviews in related niche outlets, such as podcasts, whose dedicated audiences are more likely to follow that editor's reporting, and the Bulletin, after exposure.

These efforts will continue to support and grow our global audience, especially those advocates around the world seeking change locally and globally.

Connect our experts and audience through new partnerships

The Bulletin has put significant effort into developing partnerships across disciplines to increase outreach and amplify aligned messaging. This year, we have done this in two areas in particular: our 2023 Doomsday Clock announcement and in our Arts Initiative featuring Amnesia Atomica.

• 2023 Doomsday Clock Announcement

This year, the Bulletin focused not only on building a communications strategy that stopped the global news cycle and brought attention to the new Clock time and its corresponding annual statement, but we engaged partners to elevate their work, and make the announcement even more power.

The Doomsday Clock announcement carried live by Reuters, USA Today, NowThis, The Independent and numerous local TV affiliates received the highest number of Bulletin website pageviews (572,847) in a single day and the second highest number of unique visitors (283,631). One month after the 2023 Doomsday Clock Announcement, there were nearly 12,000 earned media stories. That’s over 3,500 more stories than the same reporting period in 2020, when the Clock initially was set to 100 seconds to midnight. 1,520 TV and radio stories were broadcast, and for the first year the Doomsday Clock reached #1 as the top trending item on Twitter in the United States.

To strengthen its message, the Bulletin’s communications team hosted a first-ever Clock announcement briefing for social media influencers in mid-January and shared visual assets and a creative brief that resulted in a number of influencers posting Doomsday Clock material including high-profile influencers such as Kirsten Banks, Robert Bohan, and Melt the Band. The team also created a tool kit for like-minded organizations, with outreach efforts leading to more than 30 organizations using their own work to amplify the announcement, including Global Zero, ICAN, the European Leadership Network, the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, NTI, and many others.

In a very exciting turn of events, a number of organizations took the messaging to other platforms, including traditional media op-eds and LTEs, and in-person event programming. In other words, the Bulletin helped partners use the Clock in new ways, to share their own work and generate a more robust global conversation.

We also undertook active in-person outreach to advance the messaging of the Doomsday Clock Statement. Bulletin staff convened a stake-holders lunch in partnership with the Elders, which brought global leaders such as Mary Robinson, former Irish president and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Elbagdorsh Tsakhia, former President of Mongolia, and Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Columbia and Nobel Laureate, together with our Washington, D.C. based community. We hosted two meetings at Georgetown to that engaged over 125 students directly, and hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill in partnership with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation to ensure that the over 50 legislative assistants on both sides of the aisle had the tools to educate their principals on the Clock time and what was needed to push it back.

Global attention to the 2023 Clock Statement, published in both Ukranian and Russian, compelled a statement from the Kremlin, and perhaps most remarkably, caused UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to frame his 2023 message to the General Assembly around the Doomsday Clock. In addressing the UN General Assembly, he warned that “This is the closest the clock has ever stood to humanity’s darkest hour – and closer than even during the height of the Cold War. In truth, the Doomsday Clock is a global alarm clock,” and “we need to wake up – and get to work.” Our colleagues at the UN reported that more people engaged on social media with the parts of his speech that referenced the Doomsday Clock than any other part of his address.
The planning and activities of this annual event begin in the fall and continue with post analysis and continued push for coverage into the spring. The Bulletin’s greatly expanded programming for the Doomsday Clock Announcement which takes considerable time and resources will continue in 2024 and beyond.

• Amnesia Atomica NYC

Another example of partnerships with leading organizations, activists, experts and artists working to reduce nuclear risk was Amnesia Atomica NYC, where roughly 1.5 million people had the opportunity to experience a one-week series of events from May 17-24, 2022. The central feature of the week was a three story, inflatable mushroom cloud in Times Square, “Zero Nukes,” by the globally recognized artist, Pedro Reyes.

Times Square programs included a two-day expo featuring informational booths and hands-on activities by a dozen leading organizations, including: ART NOT WAR, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Das Bombe, Global Zero, Horizon 2045, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, New York Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons, Reverse the Trend, Union of Concerned Scientists and members of The Vow from Hiroshima movie production team. Special events included: a kick off press conference featuring Nobel Peace Prize recipient Beatrice Fihn and Mitchie Takeuchi, a third generation Hiroshima survivor, a VR experience by Games for Change, “On the Morning You Wake (to the end of the World),” that transported visitors back to Hawaii in January 2018 when a false alarm led residents there to believe they had 30 minutes to respond to an alert of incoming nuclear missiles; and live daily performances by The Tank, a small Manhattan arts organization supporting emerging artists. Reyes also debuted “Stockpile” a new participatory work in which a portion of 12,075 rocket shaped balloons – equivalent to the total estimated number of global nuclear weapons, were handed out daily. Each day, pieces of Reyes’ “Stockpile” could be seen throughout Manhattan after the giveaway.

The weeklong event led to new and deepened partnerships among leading organizations. Pedro Reyes now chairs ICAN’s artistic initiative, the Bulletin is in conversation with Lovely Umayyad about her new creative concept “Atomic Terrain” and the sculpture has been shown in multiple venues and countries such as Stockholm and Mexico City. Such partnerships raise the visibility of the nuclear issue, invite new audiences into our issue areas, and generate creative collaborations so necessary in the field.

While the Bulletin continues to pursue projects with artist like Pedro Reyes, the Bulletin has also been contacted by a number of like-minded organizations interested in partnering on mutually beneficial projects. A partnership in the nuclear space is in discussion to develop a mapping project based on the Bulletin’s Global Biolabs project.

A number of opportunities around the release of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” about Robert J. Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” and the original chair of the Bulletin’s board of sponsors, include an invitation to this year’s Comic-Con for a panel discussion at the film’s screening, and Bulletin editorial features on Oppenheimer and his complex history with nuclear weapons. The Bulletin also interviewed Christopher Nolan for the Bulletin and it is now confirmed Nolan will participate in our annual event, Conversations Before Midnight. Local Chicago events include hosted screenings of the film at Music Box Theatre, followed by a panel discussion lead by Rachel Bronson. Bronson has also appeared on local media, discussing the relevance of the movie’s themes in today’s society, connections to the Bulletin, and other current issues. A number of pieces featuring Oppenheimer are also some of the most read features in the past month leading and through the opening day of the film.

Enhance our fundraising capacity

A major focus in 2022/23 and over the next several years is strengthening the Bulletin’s fundraising operations, to keep it in line with the editorial expansion, readership growth, stakeholder interest, and a greatly increased opportunity to reach new audiences. As the Bulletin grows, it must retain and grow funding across all contributed revenue streams. This will be even more important in light of the MacArthur Foundation sunsetting its nuclear funding. The Bulletin received its final cycle of funding from the MacArthur Foundation that was recently supported by a matching grant from a Bulletin individual donor.

The Bulletin hired Ter Molen Watkins & Brandt (TWB), a national consulting firm for nonprofits, to conduct a comprehensive audit, acknowledging the growth and improvement guided by a 2015 Advancement assessment which focused on recommendations for individual giving (donors under $10,000).
After a deep-dive into the Bulletin’s efforts and relationships, TWB provided recommendations for how to move forward. Much of that work is in process and continues to influence our efforts with positive financial results. The Bulletin finished the first half of FY23 with 125% of budgeted individual donor revenue, and is expected to exceed totals for the full FY23 budget. This also represents a 22% increase of individual donors over the previous year.

Based on TWB’s recommendations, the work over the past year, and continuing, has included efforts to:

• Design a new fundraising plan, in partnership with the Chief Advancement Officer (CAO), based on assessment recommendations, and develop a suggested timeline for implementation, supporting staff through the process
• Review the annual fund plan and make recommendations for expansion
• Create a Major Gifts program plan (to prioritize portfolios for President/CEO and CAO);
  establish a moves management plan to guide their work
• Support Advancement and their work with Marketing/Communications in further
  development of the Case for Support, with recommendations for an inventory of
  collateral materials (presentations, proposal narratives, website)
• Provide recommendations to create an integrated communications calendar
• Support the President/CEO on management and execution of her portfolio
• Align Advancement team roles, update job descriptions and reporting structures,
  identify salary ranges, and support the CAO in hiring process of new staff
• Build systems and database for needed reporting and analysis
• Affirm the charter of the Advancement Committee to focus on major gifts activities;
  support the CAO and President/CEO in their engagement with the committee, in
  support of a best practice staff-led fundraising program
• Support the President/CEO’s fundraising partnership with the Board and help define
  how and when to engage them in fundraising activities and education opportunities.

The Bulletin added two new fundraising positions: an Advancement Services Coordinator, and a part-time Director of Annual Giving to ensure the CAO and CEO can more directly focus on major gifts.

Over the next year, we will on-board a new Chief Advancement Officer, and continue to strengthen our fundraising apparatus. Our strong and rapid financial growth is necessary to support our significant editorial content growth, and expand our outreach efforts to reach new audiences, support our global network of advocates, and effect policy change.

As we continue with expanding individual donors, the next phase of development and fundraising program expansion will focus on building a total organizational effort that will refine the overall fundraising operations and programs. The development team along with support from the board Advancement Committee are spearheading these efforts to deepen and broaden the Bulletin’s financial base. Fundraising programming and annual projections are being developed to reach a goal of doubling contributed income in five years.