By now, you have probably seen some discussion here on the site about purchasing a Daily Kos subscription. While not everyone can afford to do this (and if you cannot, Daily Kos will still be free, albeit with ads), those of us that can afford it have an opportunity to give a little something back to the most effective progressive website on the internet.
But Daily Kos is more than just an internet phenomenon. Over past years, the Daily Kos impact on elections and the political sphere has grown dramatically. In addition to providing a free platform for progressive writers to be read and to have an impact, they have begun to support candidates and causes in tangible and effective ways.
For example, here in my state of Michigan, Daily Kos staffer Chris Bowers has been active in the effort to recall our Republican Governor Rick Snyder. Although the first recall effort was unsuccessful, the battle continues and, under the new banner of Michigan Rising, a new effort will begin in the spring of 2012. Daily Kos will be right there with them giving assistance.
As a lifetime subscriber, I would like to encourage everyone with the means to do so to consider purchasing a subscription. Not only will you help keep the site up and running, you'll be helping to make Daily Kos an even more potent electoral force into the future. You can subscribe by clicking HERE. Need help? Click HERE.
Here's a run-down of what subscribers will get:
- An ad-free experience of the site. Faster loading with no annoying ads, it is ideal for those on dial-up.
- Three download e-books will be rolled out this month. Both giver and receiver of subscriptions will have access to these e-books.
- Unlimited access to upcoming photo organizer—allowing diarists to upload photos onto Daily Kos itself, as well as have access to the Daily Kos editorial team's news photo library. This is expected to launch by the first quarter 2012.
Kos himself put it this way:
Through the end of the year, we're going to be making a strong subscription drive. We need to continue staffing up to speed up development times and do the kind of cool things we want to do, like adding new verticals, bringing aboard more cartoonists, and directly supporting community projects like the Kos Katalog.
Subscriptions are cool -- they allow you to view an ad-free version of the site, which isn't just more attractive, but also downloads much quicker. It's a lifesaver if you're on dial-up.
We're also adding new benefits to subscribers. We'll be rolling out three new downloaded e-books for subscribers over the next three weeks.
And we're creating new subscriber features. The first such feature will be our image uploader and organizer, which will be ready by the end of Q1. It'll allow subscribers the ability to upload photos to Daily Kos and access photos uploaded by others (including the Daily Kos editorial team's). No more having to mess around with Photo Bucket or whatever.
Starting on December 31, 2011, Daily Kos will stop selling lifetime subscriptions. However, if you sign on before then, for only $100, you can purchase a lifetime subscription that will give you ad-free access to the site forever.
For $40/year, you can purchase a year-long subscription. Starting in January, this will be the only subscription sold (although existing monthly subscriptions will be maintained for the time being).
You can also give a subscription as a gift. Do you have a favorite Daily Kos blogger that you'd like to encourage or reward? An annual subscription is a fantastic way to show them that you value their contributions. Teacherken recently received one of these and you can read about that HERE. Triciawyse got one, too. Also, too, Crashing Vor.
For me, Daily Kos has given me an opportunity as a progressive writer unlike any other I have had. Every day that I come here, I learn something new about the political world around me—heck, about the world around me period!—and it has allowed me to educate others about my own little part of the world. Let's face it, without this site, many of us would never learn about the activism going on Wisconsin and Michigan and Arizona and elsewhere. It's here that we get reporting on things the mainstream media outlets either ignore or distort. We learn about new techniques for being better, more effective organizers and activists, things that we can use in our own efforts. The more informed we are, the better prepared we are for the battles we are engaged in.
Daily Kos is a powerful thing and, for Kossacks who can afford it, giving a little something back is a great way to ensure that it will become even more powerful. Please consider subscribing or giving a subscription gift to your favorite blogger.
You can buy a subscription for yourself or a friend on our subscription page. If you would like to make a donation to the site, you can do so on our donations page.
Thanks for reading.
- Chris Savage/"Eclectablog"
P.S. If you are looking for someone who doesn't have the means to purchase a subscription, I commend your attention to Onomastic's diary or Dr. Erich Bloodaxe's diary.