Talking Points Memo

One of the many challenges in the news business is balancing the need for revenue to pay people, and to exist generally, with the moral imperative to distribute important information as widely as possible. Most journalists — but not all  — get into this line of work because they are passionate about the craft and they want their work to be read by as many people as possible, which would mean the work has a significant impact.

However, this creates a natural tension. Most trusted news outlets cannot sustain on advertising revenue alone. Even before the internet, you generally paid for a newspaper or magazine. But if you have to pay for quality news — emphasis on quality, there's a lot of free stuff out there — that risks creating a tiered society where only the affluent have access to the news. 

At TPM, we want to be part of the solution, not the problem. Fortunately, we've hit on an innovative and elegant solution to this problem: If you can't afford a membership, you can get one for free. These free memberships come in two flavors: Student memberships and Community-supported memberships. We've given away thousands of these memberships over the years.

We're able to provide these memberships thanks to two things: First, all the other members. Since we're funded by memberships, that's a stable revenue stream that allows us to plan ahead financially into the future. Second, The TPM Journalism Fund. This was created to give readers who want to give even more than the cost of a membership the opportunity to support the growth of our journalism team — and help fund free memberships, hence the phrase "community-supported."

When you become a member at TPM you aren't just supporting TPM, you're helping to sustain the journalism ecosystem more broadly. We hope you'll consider becoming a part of the community.

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