How to ask for money right now

No one is cheering that subscribers are leaving the Washington Post or the LA Times right now.

AND YET.

Subscribers are leaving in droves.

250k subscribers left WaPo and 18k left the LA Times, according to Hanaa’ Tameez and Sarah Scire of Nieman Lab.

Nieman Lab also reported that The Guardian US raised $2.16 million from their readers just in THE LAST WEEK. And that the Philly Inquirer gained 4,200 new subscribers.

Suffice it to say…it’s a great time to ask for money.

My recommendation is to do this via email, and if you have bandwidth, also on your website and on social media. Email is just the best, most direct return on your time.

✅ Do this

• Send a dedicated email or two just about your subscriptions or donation options (no news!)

• Explain your editorial independence and why that benefits your readers

• Show your readers who is behind the publication (show staff photos, retell your origin story, or have one reporter take the mic)

• Make it fun or lighthearted if that’s natural for you

• Lean into election panic (SORRY NOT SORRY)

• Directly address that you don’t take pleasure in the suffering of your colleagues at the hands of their billionaire bosses but that you too have a job to do (if you feel you need to speak to that)

✒️ Hooks and angles

• There’s a reason we only take money from you

• We exist because the old way of doing the news didn’t work

• Did you cancel a subscription this week?

• Know someone who needs independent news in their life?

• Stakes are high when the news is controlled by 1 dude

❌ Avoid this

• Burying this ask amidst your reporting or standard newsletter

• Framing this like charity—you are providing a valuable service!

• “Democracy dies in…” has fully run its course

💡 Examples from your peers

• Swipefile of over 12 email examples (and growing!)

• Bonus Twitter thread with more examples as they come in

Did you already send something that worked or see an influx of new subscribers? I wanna hear about it! Reply and tell me more.