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- Giving the gift of independent journalism: a guide
Giving the gift of independent journalism: a guide
The Handbasket has subscription suggestions for almost everyone on your list.
Marisa Kabas
December 06, 2025
graphic design is my passion
This year was one of enormous growth for independent media, and The Handbasket has been fortunate enough to be part of it. I started the year with fewer than 900 paid subscribers and will end 2025 with more than 4,000 thanks to your belief in my work. I’m grateful beyond measure.
‘Tis the season for gift giving, and also to share the love. Since I know you’re a supporter of the independent media arts, I wanted to gather some recommendations for other outlets to which you can purchase subscriptions as presents. It’s something that’s sure to surprise and delight your friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors across a range of interests. From music to politics, astronomy to alcohol, tech to social justice, there’s something for [almost] everyone on your list.
This list is by no means exhaustive, nor is it meant to be exclusive. Independent media remains very siloed and I know there are many important publications to which I haven’t been introduced. Think of this as a good place to start—for you and your loved ones—to expand your knowledge of indie outlets who are more deserving of your time and money than corporate, billionaire-owned media. And feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.
Happy, merry, etc. ~Marisa
(PS - A subscription to The Handbasket also makes a great gift!)
The 51st
“The 51st is D.C.'s worker-run, non-profit news source. We’re providing vital coverage (and an alternative to the Bezos-owned Post) as the District faces its fourth month of occupation by the national guard and continued attacks by the Trump Administration on our right to govern ourselves.” - Abigail Higgins, Co-founder
Buy a subscription here!
404 Media
“404 Media does investigative reporting about human-centered technology, which means exposing how big tech and government are deploying AI, surveillance tools, and their considerable resources to make society less human. We also focus on the artists, people, and activists fighting back. A 404 Media subscription gets you access to all their reporting, bonus podcasts, and behind-the-scenes stories about how they do their journalism.” - Jason Koebler, Co-founder
Get a special 25% off for subscribers of The Handbasket here!
Aftermath
“Aftermath is a worker-owned website covering video games, internet culture, and beyond, with no access journalism and no bullshit. We do original reporting, cover games and other media, run freelance and have podcast & video stuff as well.” - Luke Plunkett, Co-Founder
Buy a subscription here!
Assigned Media
“Legacy media is failing the public, and you'd be hard pressed to find a better example of those failures than in their coverage of the trans community in the past few years. At Assigned Media, we challenge that status quo with a blend of sassy trans opinion and original reporting, for trans people, their families, and anyone else who cares about being informed.” - Evan Urquhart, Founder
Buy a subscription here!
Autonomy News
“Autonomy News is the first worker-owned outlet covering reproductive rights and justice, featuring original reporting as well as digestible weekly roundups of all the news on the bodily autonomy beat. Cofounders Garnet and Susan are trained reporters and union organizers. They don't believe their work should be behind a paywall, so Autonomy News is free to read thanks to the support of readers and donors.” - Susan Rinkunas, Co-founder
Buy a subscription here!
Bad Astronomy
"The thrice-weekly Bad Astronomy Newsletter is written by professional astronomer and science communicator Phil Plait, who brings you the whole universe in fun, easy-to-understand articles about astronomy and space. The writing is humorous and casual, and covers lots of other topics like science fiction, politics, and more." - Phil Plait
Buy a subscription here!
The Barbed Wire
“The Barbed Wire is run by a group of veteran journalists who wanted to keep the best of the legacy newsrooms that raised us — plain language, diligent reporting, high ethical standards — and throw out everything else. No both sidesing scientifically settled fact. No equivocating. We feature a mix of impactful investigations, witty personal essays, and incisive political analysis.
It’s all focused on Texas — but everything we write is nationally relevant. (Because what happens here tends to find its way to Washington, whether we like it or not.) Our free Wild Texas newsletter contains a weekly digest of our most compelling stories, but I recommend the perks of becoming a paid member, including our awesome — and sometimes deeply strange — merch.” - Olivia Messer, Editor-in-Chief
Buy a subscription here!
Bolts
“Bolts is a nonprofit publication that covers the nuts and bolts of power and political change, from the local up: With independent reporting and investigations, we focus on democracy and criminal justice, two topics where local governments are particularly important. We also publish exhaustive guides to local and state elections happening at any given time all around the country.” - Daniel Nichanian, Editor-in-Chief
Buy a subscription here!
THE CITY
“No one needs to subscribe to THE CITY — because we will never be paywalled. But to keep our stellar reporting free for all New Yorkers, we ask that those who can support us do so generously! Readers can expect fantastic, in-depth reporting on City Hall and city life. And if you want to wear your support proudly, we have awesome merch including prayer candles, chip clips, hats, hoodies, beach totes and more.” - Rachel Holliday Smith, Managing Editor
Support THE CITY here!
Fingers
“Fingers is an award-winning, AI-free independent newsletter about drinking in America, now celebrating five years in publication. It’s unorthodox, adversarial coverage and commentary on the business, culture, and history of the wildly lucrative US booze industry, read by thousands of trade insiders, labor organizers, and rank-and-file drunks each week.” - Dave Infante, Writer and Founder
Readers of The Handbasket can get 25% off their first year by purchasing a subscription here!
Flaming Hydra
“Flaming Hydra is an eclectic newsletter published by a free-thinking international cooperative of more than 65 noted writers and artists, with essays, criticism, reviews, humor, fiction, and comics to delight and surprise you each weekday. Just $36/year.” - Maria Bustillos, Founding Editor
Buy a subscription here!
The Flytrap
“The Flytrap is intersectional feminist journalism to unfuck your algorithm! We’re a worker-owned collective publishing original cultural criticism and reporting every week, plus selected reprints from the Bitch archives in the spirit of keeping the legacy of feminist media alive. (And we really the fuck hate AI.)” - Andrea Grimes, Co-founder
Buy a subscription here!
Hearing Things
“Hearing Things is a worker-owned music and culture website full of criticism, profiles, deep reporting and other fun stuff from five journalists/music obsessives with a collective hundred years (or so!) of experience. We cover independent weirdos and niche rock, Latin, rap, electronic, and R&B as passionately as we do big pop stars, and there's a good chance we'll introduce you to your next favorite artist. Plus: two new-music recommendation newsletters every week, and a podcast, Waste or Taste (in which we discuss the latest songs and decide whether they are taste...or waste).
It's basically for anyone in your life who loves music and wants to keep up with what's going on, analyzing the big corpo pop you can't escape (and may not want to) but rounding that out with the coolest and most interesting corners of the independent music world. But not snooty. We have fun!” - Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Co-founder
Buy a subscription here!
Hill Heat
“Hill Heat is an irreverent but earnest run-down of the politics of climate change, including the daily details of the fossil-fueled sausage-making on Capitol Hill. Brad Johnson's newsletter is powered by high dudgeon and funded by subscribers, not oil lobbyist dollars. Also, there are photos of birds.” - Brad Johnson, Writer/Founder
Buy a subscription here!
L.A. Taco
“L.A. TACO is an independent news source launched in 2006 to show the real L.A. in all its beauty and through all of its challenges, made for and by people who actually live and work in the city. A James Beard Award-winner, it celebrates the creativity, struggles, and resilience of Los Angeles; its taqueros, street vendors, underground creatives, artists, dreamers, immigrants, teachers, and everyday Angelenos. Over the years, its mission has evolved and expanded to investigate injustice wherever it hides, while its recent coverage of ICE raids and protests in Los Angeles has made it vital reading for everyone who loves the city of L.A.” - Memo Torres, Director of Engagement
Buy a subscription here!
Liberal Currents
“Reading Liberal Currents will help you better understand this disorienting era we live in, how to respond to it, and how we can fight for a future that is more free and equal for all. Supporting us means joining our community of liberals who truly mean it, through patron-only benefits such as access to our Discord server.” - Adam Gurri, Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Subscribers of The Handbasket can get 20% off a subscription here!
The Prison Journalism Project
“Subscribe to hear firsthand accounts that challenge stereotypes, center overlooked voices, and remind us that PJP writers are on the front lines of telling their own stories. Every Sunday, PJP’s The Inside Story, our weekly newsletter, brings you lived-experience journalism from incarcerated writers. Stories about incarceration by incarcerated people show what life is really like on the inside to those on the outside.” - Lyneka Little, audience engagement editor
Support The Prison Journalism Project here!
Status
“Status delivers scoops, deeply sourced reporting, and uncompromising analysis on the media industry, tech power players, and the shifting information ecosystem. If you're curious about what is really happening in the media power corridors, Status is for you.” - Oliver Darcy, Founder
Buy a subscription here!
Unraveled
"Unraveled is indie reporting with a fierce moral center. Its two founders regularly punch above their weight as a micro newsroom reporting from the front lines of state resistance in Chicago as well as delivering long form investigative work on policing and hate groups." - Raven Geary, Co-founder
Support Unraveled here!
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