Crux update. A stronger paywall – new benefits for free subscribers

It’s been over six months since Crux started our migration to Substack and stopped selling local advertising. We believe the future of local media is local subscribers paying for unique, in-depth local news coverage – written without fear or favour.

Based on reader surveys and looking at our own data we will be introducing the following new systems from tomorrow – Friday May 2.

This new policy is based on the underlying principle that we need revenue to survive and do our job well – but not everybody can afford a paid subscription. We also recognise that paid subscribers need to get clear value for money.

• All of our long form and investigative work will now only be on Crux Substack – for paid subscribers only.
• Occasionally our paid subscribers may feel that an article is of sufficient public interest to share with non-paying subscribers. This will be triggered by a simple vote – with the initial trigger being 50 likes on Substack.
• We will experiment with the mechanism over the next few weeks in terms of the number of likes required to trigger the removal of a paywall and the time delay between paid and free access. Please use Substack likes only to vote for free access – and use comments for everything else (we always appreciate a simple thank you or well done!)
• All readers wanting access to free content will need to be a (free) Substack subscriber.
• The Crux website will now be limited to basic local news (car accidents, events, council information, public service announcements, weather events, national news etc) with Crux Substack being the exclusive focus of our long form, investigative journalism. We may promote this content on the website, but it will only be fully hosted on Substack.
• Free subscribers will receive a preview of all Crux Substack content – but always with a paywall barrier after the first couple of paragraphs.

Action required.

Not a Crux Substack subscriber – subscribe now, free or paid. Cancel any time.

Already a paid subscriber? Thank you! No action is needed – just remember that 50 likes (we will review this threshold on a regular basis) on an article = free access for free subscribers. Use Substack article comments for all feedback etc.

Why is Crux on Substack? Substack provides all the payment, hosting, content management, subscription and marketing tools for Crux in return for 10% of subscriptions. Developing all these systems on the Crux website would be prohibitive in terms of cost and maintenance.

Please take time to learn how Substack works – it allows subscriptions to be paused, changed and cancelled (all self-service), you can unsubscribe from any or all the Substack content that is not Crux – but Substack is designed to be a dynamic connected community of writers and journalists from all over the world.

There’s some great stuff on Substack – so please learn and explore!

Questions? Please email [email protected]