Spark
$0forever
For curious readers. One unlocked story from each issue, delivered by letter.
- ✓One free story per issue
- ✓The Sunday letter from the editors
- ✓Public events calendar
Membership
Funded by readers. Accountable to readers.
No advertisers, no sponsored posts, no investors with opinions. Membership is the entire business model — which is why the writing answers only to you.
Most readers
Member
$8per month
The full magazine, every week, plus the complete archive — yours for the price of two coffees.
- ✓Every story in every issue
- ✓The complete 41-issue archive
- ✓Audio editions, read by the writers
- ✓Letters page — write and be answered
- ✓Member reading clubs
Patron
$180per year
Everything in Member, on paper. The print edition posted quarterly, plus a seat at the annual gathering.
- ✓All Member benefits
- ✓Quarterly print edition, posted worldwide
- ✓Your name in the colophon
- ✓Annual gathering invitation
The honest fine print
- Cancel any time from your account page — two clicks, no retention chat, no guilt screen.
- Member prices have changed once in four years, and existing members kept the old price.
- If an issue ever ships late, the editors explain why in the Sunday letter. So far: twice.
120,000+
Reader-members who own the magazine
0
Advertisements, ever
94%
Of members renew each year
41
Issues published and permanently archived
From the letters page
Why readers stay.
Renewal is the only metric the masthead watches. These letters are why it stays at 94 percent.
“The only thing in my inbox I slow down for. It feels like the internet remembered how to be calm.”
“I cancelled three subscriptions and kept Ember. One great issue a week beats a hundred unread tabs.”
“The Long Thaw is the best piece of reporting I read this year, in any publication, at any price.”
Pull up a chair
Read by the fire.
Your first issue is free — no card, no countdown. Stay for the ones that change your mind.