I financially support journalism on the net

Many news sites, especially smaller ones, are adding extra features for those who financially support them. Regardless of your politics, there are websites that would welcome your support. The problem of course is online ads are so obnoxious that many use ad blockers. Plus, with increased competition, the ads pay very little. The answer is to adopt a freemium model. Provide content for free, with more for those who become financial supporters. The price is generally quite reasonable.

I have subscriptions to Shadowproof, Pando, and Talking Points Memo. They use different approaches to generating revenue.

Shadowproof is the successor to Firedoglake and continues that model of investigative reporting  from an unapologetic left perspective. Subscribers get free access to live podcast video interviews before they are posted for all.  Doug Henwood, author of the recent My Turn about Hillary Clinton was interviewed Thursday. He’s as critical of Clinton as anyone on the right.

Pando covers Silicon Valley from a critical in-depth perspective, gives no fucks who they offend, and sometimes even runs stories critical of those who fund them, after disclosing the relationship. They have an unusual approach. Almost all articles are firewalled. However, subscribers are staff can post a link to an article on social media or blog that gives full access to the article for 48 hours.

Talking Points Memo covers politics in detail. They have a clever of mildly nagging you to become a member. I found himself clicking on lots of their articles linked to from Facebook. After a bit, I’d get a friendly brief screen from editor Josh Marshall saying, hey, you’re here a lot, how about subscribing? And for $4.99 a month, I finally did.

Ad revenue doesn’t pay the bills now for most websites. Support your favorite web journalists by paying for it!