Drop Site Is Free. 21,000 Readers Pay Anyway.

Drop Site doesn’t charge readers for its content. That hasn’t stopped them from paying for it.

The investigative outlet, sharply critical of Israel and U.S. foreign policy and often aligned with Hamas’s framing of the war in Gaza, turned two in July and is set to close $4.6 million in revenue for 2026.

While small and large donations account for much of that, a good chunk comes from paying subscribers — which is unusual, considering the content is completely free.

The nonprofit, founded by three journalists formerly with The Intercept—another adversarial outlet—gets 35% of revenue from around 21,000 paying subscribers (70% annual, 30% monthly) (and out of 805,000 subscribers total); 35% from small-dollar donations; 15% from larger donations (above $25,000); and a very small percentage from institutional support like foundations. They get over 20 million monthly readers to their Substack.

The content isn’t necessarily what one would expect to draw millions of readers. It’s long-form, “pretty wonky investigative journalism,” said Drop Site Chief Operating Officer Casey Quirke, with much of the attention focused on stories about Jeffrey Epstein and the conflicts in Gaza and Iran, pieces Quirke said mainstream media often gets wrong.

“If you believe that our work is important and you want more of it and you’re able to support us, that’s what keeps us afloat, right? That’s what gives us power as a community,” Quirke told AMO. “Our audience, our readers, our community, are people who have abandoned their trust for legacy outlets and mainstream media and corporate media, and they’re people from all different aspects of the political landscape.”

Readers are deeply engaged and empowered and donors see their dollars going right to work.

Drop Site has used direct fundraising to support specific initiatives, from launching its Middle East and North Africa desk to funding reporting in Pakistan and Gaza. In one recent campaign, the outlet raised more than $100,000 in less than two days to expand its budget for Palestinian journalists reporting on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank. The campaign was explicit about where the money would go, reflecting what the outlet sees as a core value: giving readers a direct role in supporting its journalism.

“That transparency on our end has shown the results,” Quirke said. “We bring people in, we’re transparent with them. We tell them what we actually need, and they have always stepped up for us.”

Substack

Drop Site’s leadership chose Substack’s newsletter platform as a deliberate response to collapsing direct traffic and the need to meet readers where they already are.

“We’ve seen, I think everyone in the industry has seen, direct traffic drop,” Quirke said, explaining that email has remained a “consistent tool” people still check daily. By building on Substack, their long-form investigations land directly in inboxes rather than relying on readers to find them, and then get repackaged into other formats—vertical video, social snapshots, podcast segments—to “flood the zone” with their reporting across platforms.

At the same time, Substack underpins their funding model without compromising their commitment to keeping reporting free—the platform lets them layer voluntary paid tiers and fundraising appeals on top of open access, preserving their core belief that serious investigative journalism—especially on war, genocide and democracy—“should be available for everyone, not just people who can pay.”

For Drop Site, Substack is about deepening engagement with the readers who already care. Quirke said he pays closer attention to how many people are actually reading than to how many have signed up: there are plenty of loyal Drop Site readers who never subscribe to emails at all, or who prefer to keep their inboxes lean. That reality is pushing the team to think of Substack not just as a newsletter tool, but as an environment where they can tailor what readers see, based on what they genuinely want from the outlet.

The next phase, he suggested, is using the newsletter platform to give readers more control over how they consume Drop Site’s work. Rather than everyone receiving every story, they’re exploring ways for readers to choose specific beats or regions—South Asia, Pakistan, Gaza and the West Bank or other focus areas—and get email flows that match those interests.

Diversification

Drop Site has been increasing its YouTube output, generating some ad revenue from the platform. They’ve also begun to put ads on their daily newsletters—as long as they fit and are aligned with the mission and don’t interfere with their independence or readers’ experience.

“That’s something we’re definitely open to exploring, and are actively looking for more of those partnerships,” Quirke said.

That said, they’re not looking for quick growth.

“We really want to be careful about having the highest impact we have while also being responsible and sustainable,” Quirke said. In a downturn, “what’s the first thing people go to do? They go to cancel their subscriptions, as they should, right? Especially to a place where they don’t need a subscription to pay to, right? That is the danger.”

So they’re not hiring like crazy—full-time staff is at 13—and the business side consists of just Quirke, a development coordinator and publisher Nika Soon-Shiong, daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.

They’re also leaning into events, doing Q&As with the journalists and in-person gatherings in DC, Chicago and the Bay Area.

“It’s something we want to do more of, but they’re also hardcore journalists. They’re focused on filing stories and investigating and doing deep dives,” Quirke said. Still, “we’ve seen the benefits when we actually get in front of people and are able to have conversations and learn about how they came to Drop Site and what makes them feel empowered.”

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