A reader named Allan told me why he paid, and I’ve thought about it since. “I am not a freeloader,” he wrote, “so I contribute.” That’s the whole pitch, and he wrote it better than I can, although I certainly don’t view readers as freeloaders. But a few of you have asked what paid actually gets you, and whether it’s worth it, so here’s the straight version.
The daily reporting stays free. The breaking-news essays, the scenario breakdowns like “If Democrats Take Both Chambers,” the Coward Files, the notes that go out when something happens- all of that lands in your inbox at no charge. If it’s breaking, you’ll read it whether you pay or not.
What paid gets you is two sections of their own, with more on the way, plus the occasional paid piece in the regular feed. Grab a Chair runs every Saturday: one reader’s question gets the long answer, the dates and the documents and the names. Kill Notes runs weekly: the five claims that traveled, which ones were improved on the way, and which one was invented. Those two are paid from the first word. Beyond them, a paid piece will turn up now and then in the other sections, the ones that take a full day of pulling filings, like the Iran war bill at day 230 or the agency-by-agency answer to a reader who asked how the country is weaker. Those take hours that free pieces don’t, and paid is what buys the hours.
Here’s the honest part about the money. I don’t need this income. I chase the news cycle because it’s the thing I can’t not do [sic]. But “I don’t need it” and “it costs nothing” aren’t the same sentence. Every hour on a documented takedown is an hour of real work, and when readers back it, I write more of them. That’s the entire mechanism. No tote bags, no manufactured urgency. You fund the work, I do more of the work.
If you’re going to do it, I’d pick the annual plan. One decision a year instead of twelve, and it’s cheaper per month than the monthly rate. If you want to back this at the level that actually moves it, there’s a founding member option above the standard price, for readers who’d rather the number reflect what the work is worth to them. A few of you have asked for exactly that. Also note that auto-renew is all on Substack. I do not control that setting, but wish I did.
So: the daily reporting stays free. Paid keeps it getting made, and gets you the two sections, the ones coming, and the pieces in the feed that need a full day. If that’s a trade you want to make, the button’s below. If it isn’t, you’re still getting everything that matters, and I mean that.
Not a freeloader, as Allan put it. But nobody here is. You showed up, and that was always the hard part.
A paid subscription as well worth it, and I'm glad I subscribed. Tom puts out a lot of content; and it's very detailed and thoroughly done. One of two writers I read first every day.