Last week I described our plan of selling Prime subscription credits. The full post is here. But the gist is this: We’ve built Prime as a premium version of TPM designed for our core readers. It allows us to create and fund things that aren’t possible in the ad-supported part of the site. And it’s also a critical revenue driver that keeps TPM stable, strong and thriving. (The fee is $50 a year or 14 cents a day.)
But not every reader can afford it. So we came up with a plan fits with our financial needs and also our values as a publication: a twist on the standard holiday season concept of getting people to purchase gift subscriptions. Instead of buying a subscription for your spouse or your niece or your uncle, buy one for someone you don’t know and won’t ever know. We’ll take that credit – good for a full year’s subscription just like the one you’d purchase for yourself – and assign it to another reader for whom the subscription fee would be a financial hardship.
(Of course, you may get to know the person as a fellow reader in The Hive, for instance. But the transaction itself remains anonymous to both parties.)
This is a quick description and it’s sort of an outside the box concept. So if you’re scratching your head trying to make sense of this, I really encourage you to read this fuller description here. You can buy one credit or two or however many you want and you can be certain that it’s going to a fellow reader who would otherwise be excluded and helping support TPM and enabling us to do what we already do better.
It’s quick, easy. And if you’re sold on the idea, click here to purchase one or more right now.
Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, the Christie cronies at the center of the growing bridge closure scandal, have been given two more days to comply with legislative subpoenas, after hiring criminal defense lawyers.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) comes to the defense of gay-bashing, Muslim-bashing “Duck Dynasty” reality TV star: “It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.”
When a freakshow reality TV star can’t hate on outsiders and the gays, where are we as a country? Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) calls the Duck Dynasty suspension a “messed up situation.”
Also, there’s no constitutional right to an A&E reality show.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) looks to be getting a brief repreive. But the guy who two years ago was a top Veep contender and a possible future presidential nominee now looks pretty clearly on track to be indicted for multiple felonies.
New Mexico Supreme Court rules that same sex marriage is legal in the state.
There’s a massively important story unfolding right now in Turkey. Here’s the latest development and some background on it – the canning of Istanbul’s top police official. But that’s only one small part of a very large and quite opaque picture. There’s a massive and far-flung corruption investigation that has already targeted numerous officials either in or close to Prime Minister Erdogan’s government.
TPM is pleased to announce that we will be awarding our Seventh Annual Golden Dukes on Friday, Dec. 27, in recognition of the year’s best purveyors of public corruption, outlandish behavior and The Crazy.
The awards are named in honor of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who epitomizes the iconic modern scandal. Each year we single out those practitioners of scandal who through their own unmatched bumbling, shameless behavior, criminality or mere derp have set new standards for public corruption, betrayal of the public trust and general ridiculousness. This year’s award is sponsored by Media Matters, which also gives out its own annual award, Misinformer of the Year, given for the biggest errors by a media figure/institution in 2013.
As a special muck-tastic addition this year, there will be an actual Golden Duke statuette sculpted and cast as tribute to the big winner.
And now for the esteemed judges and proud nominees …
Top NJ Dem with intimate knowledge of the on-going ‘Christie-Bridgegate’ investigation explains why she’s convinced political payback was behind the caper.