Jack, once upon a time, advertising revenue was once enough to cover all of Daily Kos' budget needs. Those times are long gone, though. Advertising revenue will never cover 100 percent of our budget needs ever again.

This isn't just a Daily Kos problem. A lot has been written about the decline in advertising money and its effect on the news business. It's a long and complicated tale, but the short version is that ad dollars were gobbled up by Big Tech (chiefly Amazon, Facebook, and Google).

Daily Kos now relies on donations from our readers and activists to cover operating expenses. In fact, grassroots donations make up more than 60 percent of our income!

If you want to support progressive, independent media, the single most powerful thing you can do is set up a monthly recurring donation. Just a few bucks would be great. Giving $5, $3, or even just $1 a month might seem small, but it adds up when thousands of people do it—and it's hugely helpful to us for budgeting reasons, as we can see what we should be expecting one, six, or 12 months down the road.

So I'm asking you: Please take one minute right now to set up a $5 monthly recurring donation to Daily Kos. It would be enormously helpful.

If you can't donate monthly, you can click here to donate $5 one time.

Thank you,
Michael Langenmayr, Daily Kos

If you wish to donate by mail instead, please send a check to Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible.