The membership page is where accounts and plans live: a Free tier for getting started, a Premium tier for people publishing regularly, an optional your-own-domain add-on, and separate options for publications and organizations. Reading is always free for everyone — membership meters what you can publish and unlocks creator features, never what anyone can read.
Never quote prices or tier numbers from memory — they change while pricing is finalized. The current numbers are always on the page itself; take the user there instead.
The sections below are the same explanations the page's info buttons show — what each feature actually means.
Catch a bug, get a month
Catch a bug before anyone else — if we confirm & fix it, your next month of Premium is on us.
How it works
Send the bug through the Feedback page with enough detail for us to find it — what you did, what you expected, what happened instead. We confirm it, fix it, and credit your next month.
What qualifies
When several people report the same bug, the month goes to the first report we received. A bug is something genuinely broken that we end up fixing — cosmetic quirks, things already on our list, and behavior working as designed don't qualify. Whether a report counts is our call.
(Whether a report qualifies is our call — but when it's a real bug, we're glad to pay for it.)
Publish from Claude or ChatGPT
How it works
Connect My Local Press to Claude or ChatGPT. The notes, interviews, and voice memos you work through in a conversation land in your account as drafts. When a draft is ready, tell your assistant to publish it; it publishes only after you confirm that exact piece.
Where it stands today
Claude — listed in Claude's connector directory. Find My Local Press under Connectors and click Connect.
ChatGPT — works now through Developer mode on paid ChatGPT plans, by pasting our server address. Our listing in the ChatGPT app directory is in review; once it's approved, it's a single Connect click on every plan.
(Drafting through the connector is free on every plan. Publishing from the assistant is a Premium benefit.)
Pieces & content types — what counts
Editorial pieces
Stories — your reporting, articles & updates.
Long-form video & podcasts — full episodes and recordings.
Community pieces
Polls & surveys — questions put to your community (a Premium feature): poll results publish at close; survey answers go only to the author.
Events — happenings people in your town can attend.
Classifieds — for sale, wanted, housing, jobs & services.
Local resources — organizations and services people should know about.
Coupons — offers from local businesses.
Public notices — official announcements.
Initiatives & spotlights — causes and highlights worth attention.
Alerts — timely warnings: weather, traffic & safety.
(Every piece counts toward your monthly allowance. Community pieces are always free to read; stories are their creator's call — free for everyone, or part of their subscription.)
Your own domain — how it works
What it is
A domain is your own website address — like yourname.com. Bring one you own, and your feed lives at that address — the same platform, wearing your name. Your masthead replaces ours, and readers see your newspaper-style feed (or a single-topic view — your choice) at your domain.
This works for you as an individual too — you don't need to create a publication to use your own domain. Your personal feed IS your publication; point a domain straight at it. Each domain is part of the Branded add-on — +$6 a month, per domain.
What stays yours
You keep your registrar, your email, your DNS. You add a few records pointing at us — that's the whole change.
What it isn't
This is not a custom website — your domain serves your branded feed on our platform. Hosting your entire existing site is a separate service; talk to us.
Already up and running?
If you're an existing publication or business looking to shift your infrastructure and find a new home, reach out about enterprise options — there's more on this at the bottom of the page.
Vouching — our quick human check
Anyone can sign up and read for free. Publishing starts with a vouch — a quick human check that a real person stands behind the account.
How it works
Our founders personally review each request. Once vouched for, a contributor can publish stories, events, classifieds & everything else their plan includes.
Why we do it
Local news works when it comes from real people in real communities — neighbors who are accountable to each other. Vouching keeps it that way.
(Vouching works the same on every plan, including Free — a paid membership doesn't skip the check.)
Letter of Reference
What it is
A formal letter of reference, signed by the founders, documenting your work as a journalist on My Local Press — when you started, the kinds of journalism you've contributed, and a written account of your work and standing here.
How you earn it
Letters go to established contributors. We look at the shape of your record — a real body of published work, a real readership, and the support you've earned through your work here — and every request is verified against that record.
How to request one
Ask through the feedback form or reach out directly. We verify your record, write the letter, sign it, and send it to you — or directly to whoever needs to receive it.
(It means something because it's earned — every letter is verified against the record behind it.)
Video & audio — how it works
Short vs long-form
Every account can post short video & audio — up to 15 minutes of audio, 5 minutes of video. Long-form — full episodes, interviews, recordings — comes with Premium.
What's included
Your membership includes thousands of streaming minutes each month. The more you earn on My Local Press, the more minutes it includes.
When a video takes off
Streaming costs about a tenth of a cent per minute watched — a 10-minute video seen 100,000 times costs about $1,000. When a video outgrows your minutes, we promote it to the My Local Press YouTube channel — our showcase — and it keeps playing everywhere it's embedded.
Who gets long-form
Journalists & contributors. Businesses & organizations get short-form — commercials, announcements & more — and can request long-form.
Where we're coming from
We're a small independent team — no venture backing, no YouTube-scale infrastructure, no deep-pocketed parent. Video is the most expensive thing we host, and we're building a platform that pays for itself on the same economics a small-town newsroom faces. The showcase model above is how we keep long-form sustainable while we grow.
(Allowance numbers are placeholders while we finalize pricing.)
Narration — your words, read aloud
What gets narrated
Narration reads the written text of what you publish — the body of a story, an event, a classified, any content type. Whatever you wrote, readers can listen to: on the feed, on their phone, and in the car.
Standard narration, included free
Every published piece is narrated automatically, at no cost, in one of our standard voices.
Your own voice, with Premium
Record a short sample once, and your pieces can be read aloud in a voice that sounds like you — your pace, your tone — built with ElevenLabs, the industry-leading voice service.
Each piece gives you a choice before you publish: My voice or Default voice. You decide every time.
You stay in control
Your voice belongs to you. Review or delete it anytime — and when you delete it, we delete the data behind it. We never keep your raw recording.
(Full details in the Voice & Narration guide.)
Your email newsletter
What's included
Send your newsletter straight to your contact list — the readers who gave you their address.
Rates & limits
Newsletters come with monthly sending limits that cover normal use comfortably.
(Exact limits are placeholders while we finalize pricing.)
Your Press Pass
What it is
A press credential that identifies you as an independent contributor on My Local Press — your name, your photo, and your real contributor record here.
On screen and in print
Your pass lives in Settings, ready to show from your phone. Print it too — it exports at exact sizes that fit standard badge holders, so it slips into the same lanyard the big outlets use.
Where it helps
Covering a council meeting, a game, a festival — a credential that says who you are and where your work lives makes introductions faster. For events that require formal accreditation, we also provide a letter supporting your application on request.
(Your pass reflects your real record — your start date and published work come straight from your account.)
Print-ready PDFs
Why print
A paper newspaper may always be a desirable thing to have. Maybe printing is already part of your business or publication — and we like anything that gets people off their devices.
A lot of the sadness of losing a local paper is that nobody chose it — the economics are hard. Here, print remains an option.
How it works
We keep it simple: the publication keeps the relationship with their printer or press — or prints it themselves, even better. We generate print-ready PDFs sized to real press specs: Letter for home printers, plus 10.5×11″, 10.5×14″, and 10.5×16″ — the sizes community presses run on 24″, 30″, and 34″ paper. Color or black & white.
Print that talks back
Every piece can carry a QR code. Print a short edition — two or three pages, a small batch for the coffee shop — and let readers scan only when they want the video or the full story online. The paper stays a paper; the phone stays in the pocket until it's invited.
Keeping it compatible
These specs come from a real press: the sizes above are The Trust Press's own requirements, so editions here are already sized for their presses. Every press has its own fine print — file naming, delivery, proofing, a test run at the start — and we work through that with our members and their presses directly. Printing with someone whose needs differ? Talk to us — we'll add their requirements to our specs.
(The fuller story on why print matters to us — and the presses we've talked to — is on our Resources page, under Guides.)
How you earn on My Local Press
Subscriptions & direct support
Readers, businesses & organizations can subscribe to you and support you directly — you keep 90%.
Earning this way comes with Premium: subscriptions and receiving direct support are both Premium capabilities. Backing someone else is open to everyone — any account can support a journalist or a publication.
Sponsorships
Local businesses and organizations put money directly behind the journalists and publications of their choice.
Support through direct advertising
Businesses and neighbors can support you by running direct ads on your feed and your content — support that arrives as advertising, and you keep 90%.
Receiving that support comes with Premium. Running the ad does not — anyone can place one.
Advertising
Organizations run ads on their own feeds, and paid placements fund the platform and the local journalists serving each community. Placing an ad is open to everyone; it never requires a membership.
Earning grows your video allowance
The more you earn here, the more streaming minutes your membership includes.
(Exact rates and allowances are placeholders while we finalize pricing.)
The risk-free first month
New memberships come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
How it works
Start Premium and your membership begins right away — full features from day one, billed at checkout like any subscription. If it turns out not to be for you, contact us within 30 days of your first payment and we'll refund that payment in full, no questions asked — monthly or annual.
Cancelling & the guarantee
Cancel any time; your membership stays active through the end of the billing period. The guarantee covers the first payment of a new membership — reach out through Feedback or support within the 30 days and we'll take care of it. After the window, the normal billing rules apply.
(Applies to the first payment of a new membership — monthly or annual.)
Your publication or organization — how it works
Every account can create a publication or organization of its own — a home with its own masthead & feed. A publication is for journalism; an organization can be a business, nonprofit, school, faith group, club, or civic institution.
On the Free plan
Your account includes one, and it's yours to run solo — you publish to it yourself, and it grows with you.
With Premium
Premium removes the limits: create as many publications & organizations as you need — each can claim its own @handle, just like your personal one — and build a team by inviting people to join any of them. The people you invite don't need a plan of their own: joining is free, and what they publish under your publication runs on yours. Inviting someone also vouches for them, so a new writer can register, accept, and get to work without waiting on us. Subscriptions work for these feeds too: readers, businesses & organizations can subscribe to a publication or organization's feed the same way they subscribe to yours.
Everything here is the real thing
You are you — a real person — and an organization here is one that genuinely exists and that you actually run. A name and @handle belong to the operation producing under them: claim them for something real, not to hold in reserve. If a name or handle isn't backed by the real thing, we free it up.
The same goes for what you publish: your work, your words, your media — or material you have the rights to use — with the room good journalism has always had to quote, cite, and report on the world around it.
With Branded
The Branded add-on puts any of your feeds on your own domain — a publication's, an organization's, or your personal feed — and adds your email newsletter. Each domain is +$6 a month.