When someone backs a specific journalist or publication by name, 90% goes directly to them and 10% keeps the platform running. That holds for every way money moves here: direct support, reader subscriptions, and advertising placed on a journalist's or publication's feed. This page is the one home of that number; other pages link here rather than restating it.
Getting paid
Set up payouts once in payment settings: connect where the money should go and handle the tax form. Most creators connect Stripe, which splits each payment automatically and pays out to their bank on Stripe's standard schedule; where Stripe isn't available, PayPal. Anyone can set up payouts. Receiving support and subscriptions comes with a Premium membership, and until you're set up to receive, people don't see the option to back you, so nobody's money is ever left in limbo. Backing someone else, or placing an ad, is open to every account.
The three tiers
A supporter chooses how visible they want to be. A full ad is a headline, copy, an image or video, and a link, in the feed and on the content people open. A minimal ad is a clean credit line ("Supported by Main Street Coffee") with an optional link. Profile support puts the supporter's name on the journalist's profile, or "Anonymous," with no ad in the feed. Every tier can be one-time or recurring monthly. The minimum for each tier and reach is listed below and on the advertisement form; there's no maximum.
An illustration, not a forecast: Aunt Sue backs her niece with $50 a month of profile support. Sue pays $50 plus the card processing fee, her niece receives $45 a month in her own account, and the platform receives $5. That's $540 a year from one supporter. What a journalist earns depends on how many people choose to back them.
Reader subscriptions
A journalist or publication can put their editorial work (stories, broadcasts, and long-form video) behind a monthly subscription at a price they set. Readers see a preview and a subscribe button, and subscribing opens everything. Community content (events, classifieds, resources, notices) stays free to read no matter who posts it. The split is the same 90/10, and it's turned on in payment settings once a payout account is connected. When a subscription ends, access ends with it at the close of the paid period.
What we're building: shared revenue
We're working to establish an advertising program where businesses, local through national, pay to advertise across My Local Press, and that revenue is shared with the journalists and publications who meet the program's thresholds. Platforms like YouTube have proven the model; we're building the local-journalism version. The thresholds are still being set. The shape: a body of published work, on the order of a hundred pieces; a real readership, on the order of a hundred subscribed readers; supporters already contributing seriously, on the order of a thousand dollars through the work here; and the craft that makes journalism worth funding, weighed by our evolving algorithm. The final thresholds will be published before the first payout.
The point is that larger advertisers can support the mom-and-pop paper in a small town without the big advertising networks in between taking their cut and trading everyone's data. A local car dealership backs a hometown journalist by name; a national brand picks places. Only a network can offer that, and it's why a journalist is better off here than alone. Alone, their support ends at the edge of town. On a network, it doesn't have to.
Questions
Why can't I pay in the mobile app? App stores take 10 to 30 percent of every in-app transaction, money that would otherwise reach journalists. Web payments through Stripe keep the only fee the actual cost of moving money, 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. Visit mylocalpress.com from any browser to back a journalist or publication.
Can I get a refund? Support payments aren't refundable; the journalist's share has already been transferred. For exceptional circumstances, reach out through the feedback form. New memberships and advertising partnerships carry a 30-day money-back guarantee, spelled out in the Terms.
How do I cancel a recurring payment? From your settings, on the same page where you'd manage any other subscription. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.