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155            <h1>
156                    Subscribers buy a product. Members join the cause.            </h1>
157            <h2>When in doubt, draw a distinction.</h2>
158            <h3>
159                22 Apr 2026 12:20 pm                <span class="social">
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189                            </h3>
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191        <div class="postContent styles stylesDefault">
192            <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When Josh Marshall asked me if I would participate in TPM’s membership drive, I said yes because… well, because it’s TPM! And Josh is one of my heroes. I have been reading and </span><a href="http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/22/blgrc_iv.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">writing</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> about his site since 2004. </span></p>
193<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But also: I have been reading and writing about membership models in public service journalism </span><a href="https://pressthink.org/2009/11/sources-of-subsidy-in-the-production-of-news-a-list/#p20"><span style="font-weight: 400;">since 2009</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. More recently (20I7-2021) I directed </span><a href="https://membershippuzzle.org/sunset/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Membership Puzzle Project</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, which studied how membership works in the wild, so to speak. I would classify Talking Points Memo as a membership site, one of the best we have.</span></p>
194<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But what does that mean?</span></p>
195<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When in doubt, draw a distinction. Subscription and membership are not the same thing. We should separate one from the other. That will open more ways of supporting good journalism. Subscribers buy a product. Members join the cause. One is a transaction, the other a kind of commitment. This distinction matters because around the world readers are being asked to pay more of the costs for quality journalism.</span></p>
196<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you cannot receive the product unless you pay your share of the costs, that’s subscription. It works well for the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the New York Times and for many other newsrooms. Membership sites typically do not have paywalls but there’s more to it than that. For example: People who have joined the cause for good journalism by funding their favorite news site on a voluntary basis often want it to be kept free to those who are not members. Which is how public radio operates in the U.S. (</span><a href="https://accounts.talkingpointsmemo.com/petition/account"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Click</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to see how TPM handles this.) </span></p>
197<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In March of this year the Salt Lake Tribune made an </span><a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/business/2026/03/31/tribune-paywall-removal-details/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">announcement</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">: “We’re removing the paywall. Here’s how it will work…” </span></p>
198<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They described how paid subscriptions (mandatory in the past) will turn into memberships (voluntary, and </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">a tax-deductible donation.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">) Then they went a step further. “We believe trusted, independent journalism is a right — not a luxury. And at a time when misinformation spreads faster than ever, expanding access isn’t just important — it’s necessary.”</span></p>
199<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is what I mean by “members join the cause.” It’s more than “who pays for news?” or what replaces the ad revenue lost to digital platforms? For the editors in Salt Lake City, the cause is clear: to provide everyone living in Utah with trustworthy and accurate information, “not only those who can afford to access it.”</span></p>
200<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That contrasts with the model at the New York Times, which organizes itself— quite successfully — around “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">journalism worth paying for.” Again: there are different ways to go about these things. The Times has high quality podcasts that are free to any listener, but it’s still a “digital-first, subscription-first business, centered on journalism </span><a href="https://www.nytco.com/press/our-strategy/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">worth paying for</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">
200.” </span></p>
201<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Talking Points Memo is a member-funded publication in the extreme; 91 percent of its revenue comes from those who have “joined the cause,” and become a member. (The rest is from ads.) But there is more to it than “who keeps the lights on?” More even than doing great journalism that holds the powerful accountable. There’s the specific cause around which TPM is organized these days.</span></p>
202<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Chronicling a national crisis at a time when independent journalism, and journalism in general, is being hollowed out,” is one way editors describe it.</span></p>
203<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Which crisis? “We’re in the midst of an authoritarian </span><a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/observe-orient-decide-and-act-notes-on-preserving-the-american-republic"><span style="font-weight: 400;">takeover</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of the U.S. government.”  </span></p>
204<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">TPM’s role: “The aggressive reporting required to get to the bottom of what we view as various plots against the American republic.”</span></p>
205<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What can readers do? “Becoming a member not only helps provide the financial resources to enable this work but, perhaps more importantly, is a sign of solidarity that you are with us on this mission.”</span></p>
206<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">A sign of solidarity…</span></i></p>
207<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yes to that. And I would go further. We are only at the beginning of </span><a href="https://pressthink.org/2020/09/notes-on-membership/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the membership puzzle</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. In the future donating your knowledge and civic skills will become common practice in journalism.</span></p>
208<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The people at Talking Points Memo are leveling with you. We have a national crisis. <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/memberships">Ready to join the cause?</a></span></p>
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210<div id="comments" class="postComments content">
211        <h3>2 Comments</h3>
212        <div class="comments">
213            <div class="comment even thread-even depth-1" id="comment-142305">
214            
215                        <div class="comment-wrap clearfix">
216            <div class="comment-details">
217            
218            <div class="comment-author vcard">
219                                <cite class="fn">Jim Bettinger</cite> <span class="says">says:</span>            </div>
220            
221            <div class="comment-meta commentmetadata"><a href="https://pressthink.org/2026/04/subscribers-buy-a-product-members-join-the-cause/#comment-142305">
222                22 Apr 2026 at 3:00 pm</a>            </div>
223
224                        </div>
225            
226                        <div class="comment-content">
227            
228            <p>Spot on, Jay, and reminds me why I&#8217;m glad to be a TPM member. The distinction between subscriptions and membership can be easy to lose but it&#8217;s extremely important for anyone striving to create new journalism ventures.</p>
229
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235            <div class="comment odd alt thread-odd thread-alt depth-1" id="comment-142323">
236            
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238            <div class="comment-details">
239            
240            <div class="comment-author vcard">
241                                <cite class="fn">Anna</cite> <span class="says">says:</span>            </div>
242            
243            <div class="comment-meta commentmetadata"><a href="https://pressthink.org/2026/04/subscribers-buy-a-product-members-join-the-cause/#comment-142323">
244                25 Apr 2026 at 11:42 am</a>            </div>
245
246                        </div>
247            
248                        <div class="comment-content">
249            
250            <p>Is this something that Substack could accommodate, or would it compete?</p>
251
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