If this model works, we’ll have proof of principle...

If this model works, we’ll have proof of principle that a small group of writers and editors can be paid directly by readers, and that an independent site, if tended to diligently, can grow an audience large enough to sustain it indefinitely.

The point of doing this as simply and as purely as possible is precisely to forge a path other smaller blogs and sites can follow. We believe in a bottom-up Internet, which allows a thousand flowers to bloom, rather than a corporate-dominated web where the promise of a free space becomes co-opted by large and powerful institutions and intrusive advertising algorithms. We want to help build a new media environment that is not solely about advertising or profit above everything, but that is dedicated first to content and quality.

Andrew Sullivan, Daily Beast. New Year, New Dish, New Media.

Sullivan, the commentator/founder of the Daily Dish, a blog that has found homes over the years at Time, The Atlantic and The Daily Beast, announces that he and his small staff are going independent.

To support the venture, they’ve set up a subscription plan ($19.99 per year, or pay what you want) through TinyPass, a startup payment platform similar to Press+.

The immediate business model is to convert some of the Dish’s million or so readers into immediate subscribers. Sullivan goes on to write that if that works they hope to get into longer form journalism via a monthly tablet magazine.