Written by: Lakshmi Chaudhry, Founder/CEO 

First up: A big price hike!

Ok, let me start with the not-so-good news. Starting September 4—rather, at the stroke of midnight on September 5—our subscription rates are going to jump upwards. The new prices are:

• Rs 2,999 for an annual subscription
• Rs 899 for a quarterly (three month) subscription
• Rs 1,500 for a student subscription

Noooo, don’t worry: Here’s what we’re doing to make sure we’ve got you covered—and to thank you for your early support:

• The new prices kick in only once your current subscription expires.
• You can add 3 or 12 months to your subscription at the current prices—Rs 450 or Rs 1,500—until September 4. 
• Until September 4, you can gift any subscription at the current rates. So feel free to be an early Santa this year:)
• In fact, even after the prices change, we will ensure it’s easier to gift subscriptions—which will be available at a significantly discounted price: at Rs 1999 for annual and Rs 699 for quarterly.

For our founding members: Anyone who knows splainer’s origin story understands how invaluable your support has been. We are automatically adding six months to all your annual subscriptions. Again: thank you!

About that free one month: You can continue to offer a one-month trial sub to anyone using your referral link—except it will now be worth a lot more! But, but, but: we will start asking for an OTP confirmation from those who avail of the offer. The reason: there were too many people creating fake emails to abuse the system. The extent has been both surprising and disappointing. 

Big point to note: An OTP confirmation is not required for any paid subscription. This is purely a means to stop the cheating.

URL to note: These changes are laid out in our updated FAQ—so you can consult them any time.

Umm, why are you doing this?

For three very good reasons:) 

The value proposition: splainer started out as an expanded version of a newsletter—an experiment to see how we could innovate the traditional template. But over time, our offering has significantly expanded: 

• Our Big Story has grown from a basic explainer to a deeply researched piece of quality journalism. Whether you want to learn about NFTs,  food inflation, the Indian publishing industry or Netflix’s woes, we have every angle covered.
• We added new sections to our daily edition—Weekend Advisory, I Recommend, Reading Habit etc. 
• We started online AMAs with some amazing people—Shashi Tharoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Aditi Mittal—to name just a few. 
• We partnered with brands like Urbanaut, Champaca and Heritage Lab to offer excellent weekend newsletters.
• On your request, we’ve rolled out the app and number of tech features—including bookmarking, better search etc. 

Not a newsletter: The truth is that we’re no longer a newsletter but a one-of-a-kind version of a daily news magazine—that seamlessly weaves together vast amounts of information from 100+ global sources. Even at the higher prices, we still offer a great deal: everything you need to know today—in one place at one price.

Key point to note: Everything you’ve asked for—in terms of tech—has been funded by our generous founding members and angel investors—who, btw, are all splainer subscribers! As a founder, I am duty-bound to justify that faith by turning splainer into a highly successful business.

The staff: We kept our rates down for a long time to stay accessible and affordable. But that ‘affordability’ has come at a price—paid primarily by our team. These wonderful and talented people have made do with absurdly modest salaries purely out of love for splainer. Sorry, but that doesn’t seem fair to me. 

Point to note: I haven’t claimed a salary ever, which may sound par for course for a founder. But as a sceptical VC recently pointed out: “If you’re not paying yourself, then this product isn’t paying for itself. That makes splainer’s revenue story far less compelling to an investor.” Ouch! 

You, dear subscriber: The stark truth is that we can only do so much with a small team and a modest revenue stream. Frugality has come at the expense of expansion. We can and want to offer so much more to you but that requires greater resources. There is a very real trade-off between ‘staying cheap’ and offering higher value for your subscription.

Higher value for my sub? Which means?

:) now this is the excellent bit. I am very excited about our big plan to roll out a slew of new and delightful things in the coming months. I can’t tell you all of it, but here’s what I can reveal right now. 

A big redesign: Like I said, we’ve expanded from being a newsletter to becoming a daily magazine—but our design is still stuck in the old format. This means that much of our fabulous archival content is buried in these one-long-scroll editions. It’s also hard to see what’s in each daily edition. So we’re re-visioning our design to make it effortless to get the most out of your splainer sub. Everything is going to be rehauled—from the website to the app!

Also this: Watch out for a total makeover in terms of colours, look and feel. We’re gonna be real purty! 

Weekend ‘goodie bag’: We are working on dropping a special edition every weekend—filled with valuable content. No, it won’t look like our daily news-driven edition. But that’s all I can say for now.

The biggest surprise: will be all the new things we plan to do outside your phone/laptop screen. We are working on making these as unique and delightful as our content. And all of it is inspired entirely by your many requests over the past months. The only clue I can offer: knowledge+pleasure+connection. 

The bottomline: No other media brand in the world has the deeply personal relationship that we share with our audience. It is the greatest source of inspiration and strength for me as a founder. I have the comfort of knowing that I can always speak to you directly—and you will always speak right back! Thank you for that!

PS: Unlike a number of other media brands, we don’t do constant call outs for support. Again, that’s because I believe we have to thrive as a business—not survive on donations. But if you are interested in supporting our expansion plans, please look at our founding member program. This includes the option of becoming an investor—for which you can email me directly at lakshmi@splainer.in for more information.