A note from your editor

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Running a subscription-oriented publication on the net is an interesting challenge, to say the least. Here at LWN, thanks to the generosity of our readers, we have actually made a qualified success of it. Even more challenging, though, is asking those readers to pay more in uncertain economic times and in an industry where prices normally fall. Please read on for a discussion of what we're doing and why.

But first! Let us try to distract you with shiny stuff. We have added a few new features to the site:

The much-requested comment filtering feature has been added for subscribers at the "professional hacker" level or above. When filtering is enabled, comments posted by selected readers (and any replies) will be replaced by a small placeholder indicating how many comments have been hidden. Click on the "+" icon to expose the filtered subtree. Please note that JavaScript support is required to un-filter specific comment subtrees. JavaScript was really the only way to support that functionality well; please rest assured that we remain as determined as ever that JavaScript will never be required to read LWN's content. Filtering options (including the list of readers to filter) are managed in the My Account area.

Subscribers at the "project leader" level can now request email notifications for comments posted anywhere - including all comments posted to a given article. These subscribers will see a new "receive comments as email" button below each article which can be used to populate their inboxes with LWN discussion. Note that comment filtering, if active, is applied to comments sent via email.

Tired of advertisements? Subscribers at or above the "professional hacker" level can now turn off all ads on the site.

LWN moved to the subscription model in September 2002, well over seven years ago. The basic individual subscription rate was established at $5/month then, and has not changed since. Over that time, baseline inflation in the US has added up to just over 20% (according to the US government, which would never lie to us about a thing like this), so that $5 buys rather less than it did then. The value of the dollar has also declined significantly since 2002, so the large portion of our readership which pays in other currencies has seen a nice price decrease. That's even still true for people in the Euro zone.

Additionally, official inflation rates become totally irrelevant when it comes to large expenses like health insurance, which went up 40% last year alone. Much to our surprise, the current US administration has not actually fixed that problem for us.

All this explains why LWN lost an editor in March despite the fact that our readers have been incredibly loyal to us during the whole economic roller coaster ride. We have stabilized our finances, but we find ourselves in a position of working at a pace which will certainly lead to eventual burnout. Something needs to change to enable us to address those problems and not only keep LWN alive but continue to make it better in the coming years.

So we will be increasing our subscription rates as of June 14, 2010. The new individual "Professional Hacker" rate will be $7/month, with the other rates scaled accordingly. This increase, we hope, will offset the increases we have seen, enable us to rebuild our finances, and, eventually, allow us to bring staff back to its previous level. But that only works if our subscribers do not leave in disgust; needless to say, we will hope you will stay with us. In return, we'll make the best of the increase and, with any luck at all, not do it again for a very long time.

To answer a couple of anticipated questions: prepaid subscriptions remain valid for the purchased period; the increase only affects subscriptions purchased on or after June 14. Monthly subscriptions are a bit more complicated. We have never believed that our readers wanted to give us permission to charge their cards forever, so monthly subscriptions have always had a maximum number of authorized charges associated with them. All monthly subscribers will continue to be charged the old rate for the number of months they had authorized before this announcement was posted. Only when those subscribers explicitly authorize further charges will the new rate come into effect.

Rates for group subscriptions will change by a roughly proportional amount; we will be contacting our group subscribers at renewal time to discuss the new rates.

We're a little nervous about this change; it's hard to ask for more from the people who have already supported us so well for so long. But we cannot really find a way around it. We very much hope that you will stick with us as we work to build an even better and more interesting LWN in the future.

