This week I’m excited to introduce TPM Inside.
Inside is TPM’s inner circle membership. It is for TPM Readers who want a closer, deeper look at the most important news stories and policy questions. It brings you inside operations at TPM and gives you a voice in guiding our future. Inside is also for TPM Readers who want to and are able to support TPM at a higher level than a base Prime membership.
Think of Inside like a running conversation we’re going to hold with the most interesting and knowledgable people in the world of politics, public policy and elections, a conversation we’re inviting you to be a part of. Inside also gives you an inside view of our organizational goals, strategies, reporting ambitions – all the ways we’re working to build a robust, independent, 21st century news organization, with the values, ingenuity and ambition to remain invaluable to our readers and the larger news ecosystem. Join a small community of the most dedicated TPM Readers and supporters who make our work possible.
WHAT’S INCLUDED
Here’s what comes with an Inside Membership. The core features are as follows.
***** Inside Briefings: The centerpiece of Inside is weekly Inside briefings subscribers can join either by phone or online. Twice a month Josh Marshall hosts an off-the-record conference call with a major newsmaker or policy expert. Subscribers get to listen in and ask their questions. On alternating weeks, Josh will host an hour long conference call Q&A with Inside subscribers. Depending on the top news of the moment we may be joined by TPM staffers with particular
expertise on specific news areas. We will also host briefings in response major breaking news events, as news dictates.
***** Inside Events: We’ll meet in person twice a year, once in Washington, DC and once in New York City for half day panel events. (We’re not elitist! That’s just where we’re based. In year two we plan to expand to other cities.) Tickets to Inside Events will be free for annual members. We will charge a small fee for monthly members, in order to avoid people joining only for the month of an event.
***** Inside Quarterly Report: If you’re an Inside subscriber, you’re not just really into political news. You must be really into TPM itself. With Inside, you’re not just a subscriber. You’re a stakeholder. Twice a year we’ll present Inside subscribers with a detailed report and hosted discussion of TPM’s goals, strategies, key projects and finances over the following six months. (These will be supplemented by updates at 3 month intervals.) Be part of the discussion about TPM and its future.
***** Prime and Prime Ad-Free: Prime and Ad-Free TPM are included in your Inside Membership.
***** Beginning in January 2019 we will introduce a suite of curated Inside editorial offerings, including the Inside Reading Room, which will be exclusively available to Inside Members.
COST
An Inside Membership costs $50 a month or $500 a year. For our first four weeks (Oct 19th to Nov 16th) we’re selling annual memberships only. If you sign up during this period you get permanent Launch Member status and an additional three months added on to your annual subscription. (All Launch Memberships bought during these four weeks will expire on January 31st, 2020.) If you join during this Launch Period you will get access to the increased briefings we’re holding in the lead up to the election and in the weeks immediately after. Monthly Inside memberships will go on sale after November 16th.
Inside Memberships went on sale yesterday. If you’d like to purchase an annual Inside membership today you can click this link. And thank you so much.
Before concluding, let me note a final point. I know $50/$500 fee will be beyond some readers’ means. Over the years I have sought to create a sense of obligation, that if you’re a regular TPM Reader and can at all afford it, you should subscribe to Prime. This in no way applies to Inside.
If you are a Prime member, you’ve done all you need to do to be a member of our team in good standing and doing your part to keep TPM thriving. Inside is for people who can pay more and are want to access this exclusive suite of features, discussions and briefings. That still leaves people excluded if they would like this access but the fee is more than they can afford. To this I would say the following: the money TPM makes from Inside will all go to paying for the editorial staff that creates all the articles you read either on Prime or on the public site. So even if you don’t join Inside you will directly benefit from it. Second, posts, reporting, commentary and news analysis – all our editorial product will be separate from Inside. As a business, as we navigate toward a business model which has significantly less reliance on ads it is critical for us to have a range of subscription offerings to generate the revenue to allow TPM not only to survive but continue to flourish. Inside is a critical part of that equation.
Thank you again. I hope you join us. And thank you for honoring us with you interest and readership. If you’d like join Inside just click here.
