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Dear John,

As we reflect on a turbulent year and squint into the future, I want to write to you about the concerns I have about how people who aren’t billionaires gain access to information, what that means for democracy, and what you can do about it.

Despite the **ongoing crisis of the news business** [link removed], hard-working journalists publish tons of quality reporting every day. The problem is that more and more of that work is only accessible to people who can afford it. Insider “tip sheets” and “political intelligence” services charge enormous amounts for access to the “real” news: who has power and what they’re doing with it in Washington.

I don’t want to bury the lede here: we’re never going to put our work behind a paywall. One of our core principles is that the world would be a better place if more people had access to quality reporting and analysis. But that only works if we have a community of readers who also share that belief. If you think that private journalism for the benefit of the few is bad for democracy, can you join our community of supporters to keep the

**Prospect** free [link removed]?

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If folks in the business of writing, editing, and curating quality reporting and analysis can only make the math work by putting their work behind a paywall, we’re in trouble. Journalism is so critical to democracy that a free press is literally safeguarded in the Constitution. But it doesn’t say, “a free press only for those who can afford it.” Information is becoming available more as a luxury good than the basis of a free society.This season, as we continue to research and report on the issues, join our team as a donor. Your contribution of any amount funds this critical work.

We think there is another way. With our limited time and energy, we’re asking you to do something that doesn’t make a ton of financial sense on its face: pay for something you can get for free. But what I hope to underscore is that we’re not asking you to buy something from us; rather, we’re asking you to support a media ecosystem that distributes high-quality information to as many people as possible in the hopes that it strengthens our democracy.

We will never put the

**Prospect** behind a paywall because we think information should be free. But we need you to be a part of this project. We’ve set an ambitious goal for our end of the year fundraising campaign and I hope you can help us meet the moment so that quality journalism isn’t just the province of the well-heeled, but something everyone can access regardless of how many dollars are in their pockets.

Donate today [link removed]

Thank you for being a part of what we do.

David Dayen

Executive Editor

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