March 4, 2021 - 11:22am
We wanted to tell you about our plans for the next phase of UnHerd and invite you to become a member.
We’ve had an incredible few years — our audience has grown enormously, and we have become one of the UK media’s standout success stories. With our brilliant team of editors and contributors, we’ve vigorously challenged “herd mentality” without sacrificing quality or thoughtfulness.
We’ve been lucky to have strong start-up backing, but if we want to become a long-term feature of the media landscape, we must become financially sustainable. So, we are launching a paid membership scheme — £1 a week, with a 25% reduction to 75p a week if you sign up in the next fortnight.
For now, this is not a “paywall” — you’ll still be able to read our articles and receive our emails. Members will receive an array of additional benefits: use of our fantastic new app (iPhone and Android), invitations to live interviews and Q&As, and top billing on our comments threads.
We think it’s a great offer, and hope you’ll snap up the earlybird discount (available to March 15th).
The need for true independent thinking has never been more urgent — with you on board, we’ll do our best to keep changing minds and challenging assumptions.
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SubscribeIf you pay for journalism then you are the customer. If you don’t, then, chances are that influencing you is the product, and somebody else is the customer. What I want, in on the ground level, is a pledge from Unherd that it won’t see its purpose as influencing me, and telling untruths in the name of some holy mission to get me to believe certain things. I want to pay for journalism which sees journalism as something other than propaganda, which is, near as I can tell, no longer a mainstream belief.
Agreed.
If you want journalism, not activism, you have to pay for it so it can be financially viable.
I’ve subscribed to a couple of creators on Locals.com for the same reason.
I would certainly be prepared to pay if you returned to the ‘old’ Disqus comments system.
However as that seems very unlikely, I will part company on the Ides of March.
Many thanks for a very amusing and interesting eleven months.
Thumbs up. I have pretty much left the herd.
Happy to sign up; I don’t comment on articles around cancel culture and censorship much on here – I was brought here because of frustration with mainstream media over Covid coverage.
However, these other things still bother me and I am keen to support any genuinely independent media outlets that will critically examine this worrying trend.
I feel Unherd is one of a small, but hopefully growing, group of on-line publications that challenge the nonsense that has swept Western society in recent years. It’s a small beacon of hope, at least for me. Most of the articles are well researched and written, imo.
I agree with the many other people who would like to see the old, more interactive comment system return. We can hope.
Here’s a minor quibble: when I joined Unherd I was told that by joining I agreed to their privacy policy. Where is that policy located for review? Does anyone have a link either to the policy or to contact Unherd and ask for a copy of their privacy policy?
Agreed, and I’ve subscribed. An improvement I’d like to see in the future is more responses from authors to the comments – obviously only if they want to, and only to comments that particuarly interest them for good or bad, but it’s always a pleasure to see authors engagiing with the readership and it doesn’t happen much on Unherd.
Seconded with the comments. The ability to follow up on comments is very useful. Is there anyway to put that feature into the new system?
Yes, that annoys me too. I don’t understand why you can’t keep track of the discussions any longer. That seems to me a very basic feature that every commenting system has.
Still, I immediately subscribed.
My understanding is that Unherd have received the message about comments loud and clear, and are working on a release to reinstate the lost functionality…
How do you know? Are you privy to the inner workings of Unherd? 😀
I sent an email via the Support option in the Account section, and got a positive response.
Hopefully something will be said/released soon.
Having been banned from loads of sites, and they never give you your money back, that is my question – when you finally ban me again, will I get a refund, or at least my auto debit stopped? And what is this ‘Top Billing’ on comments? And when I give my credit card details will you doxx me by making me post under that name? And like Daily Mail comments, where it is impossible to close your account as there is just no function at all to delete your account so it hangs over you like an albatross for ever – how is deleting going to be done? And what should we read into your your comment ‘no paywall yet’? And have you thought of a chat function where we can talk to others and show our selfies? Also when covid is over what Cause Celeb do you plan to take up? And, how will your Terms and Conditions be structured? Are you a town square or a private salon? Is posting WWG1WGA instant banning? Do you plan to work with authorities if asked? Just curious.
‘And when I give my credit card details will you doxx me by making me post under that name?’
They should provide an option to pay by cheque, as The Spectator does. It costs a bit more, but they don’t have your bank/credit card details.
I see you do not have the ‘I’m a sheep’ banner of the green ‘Member’ above your name yet. I really have a bit of a crazy part of me of not joining anything, I am pathologically a drop out, one yields a bit of one’s sovereignty, or has knuckled under, or some thing, when you submit application and fee and now are a ‘member’. I cannot imagine an organization composed of many people like me, it would turn out bad.
So that is another question, Will we be able to have the banner hidden? And will we be able to buy green hats with MUG accross the front, ‘Make Unherd Great’ that we can wear at anti mask rallies and such so we can spot each other?
I have paid the£39 requested in support of Unherd, but each time I try to sign in to read, I am confronted with a box saying to continue I have to accept the App and website sharing my information. I do NOT like that. Please unlock my My UnHerd without compromising my privacy in that way. Thank you
I got a bit mystified by that too. The app was a bit fussy to get going.
I suppose you need to allow the app to access your data to know you have paid.
We’ve had an incredible few years — our audience has grown enormously, and we have become one of the UK media’s standout success stories. With our brilliant team of editors and contributors, we’ve vigorously challenged “herd mentality”
Haven’t you forgotten the adage ‘self praise is no recommendation?’
I think I was one of the first to subscribe and I’ve been regretting it ever since. My main difficulty is your poor communication with commenters. Now you’re charging us for membership it must improve. This column shows you can do it if you want to and now you must do it, or I for one will not be subscribing again.
This is hilarious. Having created an echo chamber, the members are now asked to pay to remain. So eventually I will have the option to pay for the privilege to read the vacuous, repetitive and self-obsessed output of Fraser Twatley and his ilk on a daily basis. The mutual upticks are so comforting, no doubt they will all pay in order to be able to uptick each other. Meanwhile the standard of “journalism” is pitiful – we get repetitive diatribes form Douglas Murray, Giles Fraser and other no-marks.This is not a “business model”. It is someone’s ego-trip. But good luck with it.
Blimey, how unhappy you sound, James. I think you may have misinterpreted the word ‘option’ – it means that you get to choose.
Your regard for the quality and content of the writing is, obviously, your own unique take on what you see, and your discontent is clear – so perhaps more focus on that misinterpreted word ‘option’ might help. Alternatively, you are more than welcome to submit your own musings for consideration to publish, as is made crystal clear in the footer.
As a by-the-by; perhaps you might seriously consider contributing, and in that way ensure that the rest of us are not confined to the echo chamber that you are so concerned about. For only by adding our voices to the discourse can we truly find out how our fellows feel about specific issues and topics.
As for the business model – it is perfectly fine; all business runs on repetition at some level. The business produces a product or service that the public have an ‘option’ to buy. Seems pretty clear to me.
All the best.