Hey Travis, I wanted to tell you why we launched 404 Media in the first place. For years we worked at Motherboard, the technology section of VICE. In mid-2023 I was trying to pull up a court record as part of my job. This should have only cost 10 cents. But I found I couldn't download the document I needed because VICE had failed to pay its bills. Later I learned just how much VICE executives were making. Staggering salaries between $600,000 and even $900,000, as well as six figure bonuses! All while I can't even download a single court record I need to keep doing my investigative journalism. 

I was angry. I tweeted screenshots of the salaries. Then Jason, Sam, Emanuel and I started to talk about a new idea: what if we made our own media company, an engine for our investigative journalism that we can grow responsibly and sustainably. The journalists would be in charge, and our work would be the number one priority. The result is 404 Media, and at its foundation are paying subscribers.

But here's the thing. Building independent media is hard, and our future is literally in the hands of our readers. So we are once again asking for your support. As an incentive, we're offering a special discount. Instead of paying $120 over the course of a year, we’re offering a full, annual subscription for $90.

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We know not everyone has the means to support us but if you can, please do. That makes it possible for 404 Media to continue doing the work we do. As a membership-funded site, we cannot do it without you.

When you subscribe, you get:

• Unlimited access to all our articles, ad-free.
• A full text RSS feed of our site.
• Commenting privileges on the site (the best of which we publish in our newsletter and respond to on a subscribers-only podcast).
• Access to “Behind the Blog,” our weekly series where we go long and personal on how we reported our own stories that week. This is delivered both as part of the weekly newsletter and as a paywalled article on the site.
• An ad-free version of our weekly podcast, with bonus content every week, as well as extra episodes including a subscriber-only Q&A where we answer questions and comments from 404 Media readers.
• Access to the “FOIA Forum,” an interactive digital event where we'll listen to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ideas, and teach you how to file effective requests. Think of these as FOIA group projects. You'll learn about how to join these ahead of time via email, so stay tuned. A full archive of those streams is here, which you'll be able to dig into once you subscribe.
• The knowledge that you're supporting investigative and impact-focused journalism, as well as a journalist-owned independent business.

• A full text RSS feed of our site.

Thanks for considering supporting our mission.

Sincerely,

Joseph (and Sam, Emanuel, and Jason too)