Why does elephant ask readers who want to read a lot of elephant articles to pay $1/month, or come back and read more articles for free tomorrow? I get that question at least once or twice a week, so thought I’d share my thoughts.

Become a member of elephant, an experiment in “mindful,” indie, non-corporate backed, reader-created media: just $1/month. Don’t want to pay? That’s fine: just come back tomorrow and read a few more articles for free.

Q: why do I have to become a member of elephant to read everything I want?

A: The expectation that media be free only online is not only random but prevents online media from producting quality journalism.

We offer 2-3 articles free each day, including free home page and all searches. In addition, all links are free from our weekly newsletter (a good reason to sign up if you don’t want to pay $1/month). If you think about it, we can’t both value elephant, and be frustrated at wanting more…and yet not value elephant at all, being unwilling to pay $1/month.

We literally couldn’t charge less, and stay in business. We go out of business, no one, including you, would be able to read anything at all. Hope you understand. ~ Waylon.