How Payments Work
Who pays, who gets paid, and how the math works out.
Who funds journalism here
Advertisers, friends, family, and readers — wherever they live — fund the journalists who cover their communities.
When someone backs a specific journalist or publication, 90% goes directly to them and 10% keeps the platform running.
When journalists get paid
For direct support — backing a specific journalist or publication by name — we use Stripe Connect. The 90% transfers to the journalist's connected Stripe account at the same time the supporter's payment clears. No holding period, no monthly batch, no payout threshold.
The journalist sets up Stripe once when they enable support on their profile. After that, every direct backing flows through automatically.
Support for My Local Press flows into a shared pool. The majority still pays journalists directly. The rest goes toward special projects — Spotlights, Initiatives, and deeper coverage on issues that warrant it — work we'd often bring to journalists already on the platform.
Three tiers of support
Whoever's backing a journalist picks how visible they want to be. The journalist's share is 90% in every tier. Prices for Full and Minimal Ads scale with how wide an audience the ad reaches — local, state, national, or global. Profile Support has no feed placement, so reach doesn't apply.
Full Ad
Headline, copy, image or video, click-through link. Appears in the feed alongside community content.
From $49/month local · $199 state · $499 national · $899 global
Minimal Ad
A clean credit line — "Supported by Main Street Coffee" — with an optional link. Lightweight, professional, unobtrusive.
From $33/month local · $133 state · $333 national · $599 global
Profile Support
No ad in the feed. Your name appears as a supporter on the journalist's profile — or as Anonymous if you'd rather. Pure backing, no promotion. The simplest way for friends, family, and quiet supporters to show up.
From $20/month, anywhere — supporters can give more if they want to back you harder
Two ways to direct your support
Back a person or publication
Pick a journalist or organization by name. 90% goes to them, 10% to the platform. This is what someone does when they share their profile with friends, family, and local businesses.
Support My Local Press
Back the platform directly. That money funds paying journalists, commissioning coverage where there isn't any yet, keeping the lights on, and expanding into communities that need it.
Recurring monthly support
Every tier can be set as a one-time payment or as monthly recurring. Recurring is the default — predictable income for the journalist, predictable cost for the supporter. Cancel anytime from your settings.
A worked example
Aunt Sue backs her niece with $50/month Profile Support.
- • Sue pays $50 + Stripe processing fee (about $1.75)
- • Niece receives $45/month directly into her Stripe account
- • Platform receives $5/month
- • That's $540/year from one supporter — twelve of them is roughly $6,500/year of steady income
Why this happens on the web, not in the apps
App stores take 15–30% on every in-app transaction. That's money out of journalists' pockets for no real reason. Web payments — credit or debit card via Stripe — keep the only fee the actual cost of moving money: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
We may add in-app purchasing back as a convenience down the road. For now, the web keeps fees low and more dollars where they belong.
A note on the algorithm
The algorithm has two jobs. First, shaping how the shared pool flows — which journalists draw from the portion that pays journalists directly, and which get tapped for the special projects we fund from the rest. Standard engagement metrics weigh in, but so does the respect that pieces and authors earn from readers. Second, deciding which stories surface in feeds beyond their local origin. Both lean on the same signal: the kind of dialogue we want to be having — journalists who earn respect from the people who read them, and readers who can disagree with a piece and still recognize the work behind it. The Disagree with Respect option attached to every story is part of that. This is still evolving.
Direct support is the one fixed split — when someone backs a specific journalist by name, the 90% transfers no matter what.
Quick answers
Can I pay from the mobile app?
Not right now. 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, contact hi@mylocalpress.com.
How do I cancel a recurring subscription?
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.
More questions? Reach us at hi@mylocalpress.com