Who The F*ck Supports This?
You do.
It's not enough to be a consumer of media. You must be a stakeholder in it. Invest in the continued production of WTF Just Happened Today? by becoming a supporting member. Choose from three recurring membership options below:
Just want to make a one-time contribution? As an alternative, you can support WTFJHT with one-time contributions of $25, $50, $100, and $200.
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Use PayPal or Venmo (@WTFJHT) to contribute any amount you want one-time.
Here's the deal: This is my full-time job. And, I plan to keep doing this for as long as you keep supporting me. While the newsletter has always been free, it’s been sustained entirely through voluntary reader contributions. My goal has always been to earn a fair living wage so I can continue writing and reporting on WTFJHT without interruption. Said another way: Your support doesn’t just fund my work; it creates access for readers who otherwise couldn’t afford it, helping to keep everyone informed.
So, if you find my work valuable and find yourself relying on it, invest in the continued production of WTFJHT by becoming a supporting member so I can continue to tell you wtf just happened today.
Here’s how the math maths: About 2% of readers underwrite WTFJHT, which unlocks free access for everyone who cannot support my work. The annual cost to send this newsletter is about $1.95 per subscriber. With an average monthly contribution of $6.24 per member, each supporter effectively "pays for" approximately 38 free subscribers.
What's the money for? WTF Just Happened Today? is a bespoke newsletter, blog, podcast, and community chronicling the daily shock and awe in national politics. It's produced once a day with a newsletter sent out every afternoon, Monday through Thursday. More than 250,000 people rely on WTFJHT for the day's political news in a concise and focused recap. Your financial support is an investment in the continued production of all of the above.
Member benefits. Your optional, but generous support ensures that the following things are actively maintained: The Daily Update, the newsletter, the podcast, the Alexa Flash Briefing, the community forum, the RSS, Atom, and Apple News feeds, the WTFJHT API, Current Status, and more.
Credit card payments are handled by Memberful with Stripe as the payment processor. Your email address and personal information will never be shared with anyone for any purpose. Period. You will, however, receive occasional emails from myself and Memberful regarding invoices, renewals, and issues related to your credit card or account. Please note that all memberships auto-renew monthly/annually, but can be cancelled at any time. There are no refunds.
Questions or comments? Let me know.
Thanks for your support.
–Matt
Can't afford to support my work financially? That's okay! Share WTF Just Happened Today with a friend. It's free and has a big impact. Tweet about it, share it on Facebook, or just forward the newsletter to a friend and encourage them to subscribe.
WTFJHT Values and Editorial Policy.
Journalism is a set of ethics based on trust, truthfulness, fairness, integrity, independence, and accountability. WTF Just Happened Today is a reflection of these ethics, but also applies the following standards and practices:
- Transparency. WTFJHT is open source and hosted as a public GitHub repository. Readers are encouraged to improve WTFJHT by making edit requests to fix grammar, typos, facts, sources, etc., as well as to contribute code.
- Facts first. WTFJHT isn't partisan. It does not offer commentary, opinion, or analysis. Instead, WTFJHT prioritizes truth over politics, and more specifically the human condition over partisanship. Bias is the byproduct of being a human making decisions about the relative importance of things shaped by their experiences, cultures, and values. Sorry.
- Reputable sources. I always cite and clearly link to the original source material. Where appropriate, I'll include additional sources to other publications reporting the same or similar information. In both cases, I cite sources that frequently break news via original reporting, which is also routinely and independently confirmed by other sources, which also break original news that is also routinely and independently confirmed. Got that?
- Clear expectations. The premise is simple: state what happened, what the facts are, and cite the source.
- No strings attached. There's no business model trickery here. No ads. No paywalls. No selling of data. I have a website and a newsletter, and I'm supported directly by my audience. That's it.
Still not convinced? Here's what the smartest people on the Internet are saying about What The Fuck Just Happened Today:
- "This is the site I’ve been waiting for." –Amy O'Leary, Chief Story Officer and Editorial Director at Upworthy
- "Single subject, distinct tone, clear formatting, total understanding of what its audience wants. @WTFJHT is the best email newsletter." –Dave Lee, BBC Silicon Valley Reporter
- "@WTFJHT is a brilliant journalistic response to an urgent civic need." –Jeff Jarvis, Director, Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism
- "Terrific daily digest. Exemplary news curation. Highly recommended." –Mark Potts, Digital Media Entrepreneur
Can I send you a check? Yes! Please make it payable to Matt Kiser (I can't cash checks made out to WTF Just Happened Today). My physical address is: WTF Just Happened Today? 505 Broadway E #211, Seattle, WA 98102 USA
Where's the $1/mo option? Credit card fees on $1 are outrageous and there's nothing I can do about it. About 34% of a $1 pledge goes to the credit card processing companies. That's a lot of wasted money. Compared to a $5 pledge, "only" 10% is lost to fees. If you want to support WTFJHT at the equivalent of $1/mo, I offer a $12/yr option.
How do I login to my membership account? If you're on the Memberful platform (most members are), you can sign-in here. If you're on DonorBox, this is your sign-in page. And, if you're a Patreon member, here you go.
How do I update my credit card? Log in to your account, add your new card and click Update my credit card.
Can I update my email address or other personal information? Yes. Log in to your account here to make these changes.
Does unsubscribing from the newsletter automatically cancel my recurring membership? No. If you'd like to cancel or edit your recurring membership, please use the links provided in your receipt emails (or the appropriate link above) to manage your membership. Because WTFJHT is free but supported by optional contributions, it's not possible to make the assumption that someone unsubscribing from the newsletter also wants to cancel their patronage. In many cases, supporting members do not and have never been newsletter subscribers (e.g. a blog reader or Twitter followers). For these reasons, I provide members with the tools to manage their account at any time for any reason.
How do I cancel my membership? For Memberful members, log in to your account and toggle auto-renew off from the "Subscriptions" menu item.
Are you a 501(c)(3)? Is my contribution tax-deductible? No, I'm a for-profit, single-member LLC based in Washington State. There are two reasons for this: 1) this setup makes it easy to manage and keeps my operational overhead low, and 2) I strongly believe media businesses need to be in the business of being in business. Meaning, my ability to fund WTFJHT is a reflection of the value created for the readers. If enough readers don't find WTFJHT valuable enough to pay for, then maybe WTFJHT shouldn't exist anymore.
How much does this thing cost to run anyway? Glad you asked! I did some back of the envelope math and I came up with $16,280/month. That's a conservative estimate, to be honest. If you're interested in how I arrived at that number, I've outlined the cost of running WTFJHT in the FAQ.