FAQ
TPM is funded overwhelmingly by readers’ membership fees. More than 90% of our income is derived from memberships. This allows us to be a fully independent organization – no corporate overlords and not beholden to or controlled by any outside interests.
Each of our three membership plans – Prime, Prime Ad Free, and Inside – offer the same unlimited access to all TPM. While we can’t just give everything away for free (see above), we also don’t believe access to news and information should be dependent on one’s financial resources. For this reason, we offer different membership options so that readers can support us at the price they feel most comfortable. We also know many people hate ads. So with Prime Ad Free and Inside, you support TPM at a higher price point but in return receive a completely ad-free experience and dramatically faster page loading.
At TPM it is important to us that access to news and information not be dependent on one’s financial resources. Therefore, we offer free memberships to readers who cannot afford them. These memberships include all the benefits of a regular Prime membership and are paid for through The TPM Journalism Fund. You can apply for a community-supported membership here.
Yes, TPM offers free student memberships for all currently enrolled students. Student memberships include all the benefits of a regular Prime membership and are paid for through The TPM Journalism Fund. You can apply for a student membership here.
If you'd like to support TPM beyond the cost of a membership, you can do so by contributing to the TPM Journalism Fund. Contributions allow us to hire more journalists, provide free memberships to students and those who cannot afford them, and further enable our independent, non-corporate journalism.
Unfortunately, we do not offer gift memberships at this time. However, we plan to make them available again soon.
At this time, we do not offer family or group memberships.
You can access your account and billing information by signing in and clicking on ‘Account’ in the upper right-hand corner of TPM and then selecting 'Account' in the drop-down menu.
Having trouble signing in? Visit the site issues sections of the FAQ.
When signed in, you can find your membership plan here. Prime, Prime Ad Free, and Inside all provide unlimited access to TPM articles and content. Active plans will have an associated renewal or end date.
Basic Accounts are free accounts, not memberships, and do not provide access to member content. A Basic Account is typically associated with a paid membership that has lapsed, an account which subscribes to TPM newsletters but does not have a membership, or an account that was created as part of the membership checkout process and did not complete it.
A password or username is not required to log into the site. You can log in using your email and then clicking the sign in link sent to your inbox. However, while passwords are not required, we highly recommend that you create one if you haven’t already. You can do this from your account page when signed into the site.
If you have forgotten your password, you can request an account recovery link here.
If you need further assistance you can reach out to siteissues@talkingpointsmemo.com.
Yes, you can change your username from your account page. However, the frequent changing of usernames may be subject to discipline from TPM moderators.
You can update your billing preferences, including your credit card information from your account page.
Once your information is up to date and your membership is set to automatically renew, your account will be charged based on the updated information.
You can find the date and amount of your next payment on your account page.
Memberships are set to auto renew by default. You can manage your auto renew setting from your account page. As long as auto renew is on, your membership will renew at the start of your next billing cycle.
You can change your membership plan from your account page. Upgrades to your membership will happen immediately (e.g. Prime to Prime Ad Free) and the price will be prorated based on the time remaining in your current membership. Downgrades (e.g. Prime Ad Free to Prime) will take place at the end of your current billing cycle and will not be prorated.
To rejoin, make sure you are signed into your existing TPM account. Then you can rejoin through various avenues available on the site, including through the membership page.
If you are having trouble signing into your existing TPM account, visit the Site Issue section of the FAQ or contact us: siteissues@talkingpointsmemo.com
As long as you remain qualified, free memberships can be renewed by submitting an application stating your desire to renew.
You can manage your email preferences, including newsletter subscriptions, from your account page.
New accounts are not required to have a password, although it’s highly recommended that you add a password once your account has been created. You can add or reset a password from your account page.
Yes, we manage all transactions through Stripe. You can read their security policy here.
TPM does not store credit card information. All payment information is managed through Stripe. You can read their privacy policy here.
Yes, you will receive an automated email confirming your payment upon its completion.
If you have any questions about your billing information or notice an error please reach out to us at memberships@talkingpointsmemo.com.
You can cancel your membership at any time by turning off the auto-renew setting found on your account page. Once the auto-renew setting has been turned off, you will maintain access to your membership until the end of your billing period at which time your membership will end and you will no longer be billed. If you change your mind and wish to continue with your membership, simply turn the auto renew setting back on before the end of your billing period.
Please reach out to us at memberships@talkingpointsmemo.com if you'd like to disable or delete your account.
Sign in here, or by clicking the "SIGN IN" button in the site header.
There are two ways you can sign into your TPM account:
- Enter your email and we will send a magic link to your inbox. Click the magic link and you will be automatically signed into your account. No password necessary.
- Enter your email or username and the password associated with your account. If you created an account and have not yet created a password, you can do so from your account page (highly recommended!)
First, please make sure that the email wasn't filtered into your spam folder by mistake. If you still don’t see the email, you can contact us at siteissue@talkingpointsmemo.com
For security reasons, magic links are one-time use. However, if it wasn’t you that clicked the link that one time, it's possible the link was triggered as part of a security scan. If you are using a work email, particularly if your workplace is sensitive to security threats, this can happen. If this is the case, we recommend logging in with a password rather than a magic link. If you do not yet have a password and/or cannot get into your account to set a new one, contact us at siteissue@talkingpointsmemo.com.
We understand that this is frustrating, but there is almost always a good reason. In our experience, here are some of the more common reasons:
- Your browser has saved an incorrect password and is auto populating the password field
- There was a typo in your email address when you joined
- You have multiple TPM accounts with different email addresses
Sometimes it helps to clear your cache and cookies and start fresh. If this doesn't work, you can try resetting your password. If you are unable to reset your password or do not have one, there is likely an issue with your email address. For helping sorting out the issue, contact us at siteissue@talkingpointsmemo.com
Once you sign in on a device and browser, you should remain signed in for one year unless you manually sign out or clear your cookies. If you are being required to sign in multiple times per day, please make sure you are not viewing the site in private or incognito mode. Sign-ins are not persistent across devices and browsers, so if you are using multiple devices and/or multiple browsers (Firefox, Chrome, etc), you will need to sign in each at least initially. If the problem is not related to multiple devices or browsers, please reach out to us at siteissues@talkingpointsmemo.com and we'll help resolve this issue for you.
First off, make sure you are signed into an active membership account. You can check which type of membership you have by clicking on the account dropdown in the top right corner of the site (on mobile you will see a person icon). Your membership type will be listed under your email address. Prime, Prime Ad Free, and Inside all have full access to TPM. Basic Accounts are free accounts, not memberships, and do not provide access to member content.
If you have an active membership but still cannot access paywalled content, we recommend signing out of your account and back in to see if that resolves the issues. If not, contact us at siteissues@talkingpointsmemo.com.
First off, make sure you are signed into an active membership account. You can check which type of membership you have by clicking on the account dropdown in the top right corner of the site (on mobile you will see a person icon). Your membership type will be listed under your email address. Prime, Prime Ad Free, and Inside all have a reduced number of ads. Basic Accounts are free accounts, not memberships, and carry the full ad load. The breakdown of ads based on membership type is as follows:
Prime: Two banner ads per page on desktop and tablet devices. Recommended content below articles.
Prime Ad Free and Inside: No ads of any type on any device.
We maintain a Site Status blog that you can find here. If you're noticing something that is not reflected in the blog feel free to email us at siteissues@talkingpointsmemo.com
As memberships have become the primary source of revenue for TPM, we’ve decided that paywalling a small portion of our content is in the best interest of the organization to ensure long-term sustainability. However, this is not a decision we made lightly. We want our journalism to reach as many people as possible and remain accessible to everyone. For this reason, relatively little content is paywalled and nearly all of our reporting and live blogs remain free. Additionally, we offer free memberships to students and our community-supported membership program provides free memberships to anyone who cannot afford one. We’ve given out over 1,000 free memberships in this manner.
There is no limit to the amount of non-member articles you can read. However, it is crucial to TPM’s continued success that as many or our regular readers as possible become members. We show the number of articles non-members have read in the hopes it will encourage them to become members.
Member-only articles will be marked with the Prime icon – a white ‘P’ inside a red circle – after the headline.
TPM is a member-funded journalism organization. Advertising revenue now accounts for less than 20 percent of revenue as opposed to just a few years ago when it used to be close to 100%. This is a good thing, but it means we need and rely on funding from our members and our readers.
We recognize the need for more journalism now. The public has an urgent need for accurate reporting and intelligent analysis of current events. We need to increase our resources to be part of the solution. We of course want to continue growing our membership base, but we believe we need to act quickly now to ensure we have the resources to produce high quality, independent, non-corporate journalism.
If you are already a member, please do not feel as though you need to make a contribution on top of that. While a membership is definitely the best way to support TPM, we know that some members wish they could contribute more. This is an avenue to do so. We also know that some readers can’t afford a membership, but would still like to contribute. This is a way for them to do so as well.
You can make a contribution by clicking the 'Contribute' button in the upper right hand corner of the TPM front-page.
Contributions are not recurring.
Contributions are not tax-deductible as a charitable contribution.
At the bottom of each article (excluding the Editors' Blog) there is a comment box with a button to "Continue Discussion". Clicking this button well bring you to the commeting forum where members can post comments.
The Hive is a members-only forum available to all TPM members.
To access The Hive, you can do so via the portal located on all story pages (along the right-hand side) or via the account dropdown menu located at the top of each page when you select your username.
TPM is member funded and member focused. Our time and energy across the entire organization from editorial to tech is focused on serving members. In that spirit, it seemed an important step to make commenting a member-only privilege. However, it's also a priority to ensure that we don't become a walled garden only accessible to those who can afford our journalism and to be a part of our community, which is why we offer free memberships for anyone who cannot afford a membership or is a student. By providing these avenues, we think we can best ensure the sustainability of the organization and retain the openness we think critical.
Yes, your comments will still be there if/when your membership lapses. In addition, you can download your comment history at any point through your Hive profile page.
You can find our terms and services here.
We don't have a direct relationship with these organizations. The ads come through third-party networks. TPM has always had an agnostic stance toward advertising that comes through third-parties with regard to candidates or politically minded organizations because once you start allowing some and not others, those become endorsements.
You can report offensive ads by emailing us at siteissues@talkingpointsmemo.com Please include a screenshot of the ad in question and we will review it, and if needed see what we can do about removing it.