Why This Is the Only Paywalled Post on The Old Guardian

(Full preview enabled — nothing is actually hidden.)

Most Substacks hide their best writing behind a paywall.
This one hides nothing.

Every investigation, every FOI, every breakdown, every North Star analysis — it’s all free.
Truth doesn’t belong behind a toll booth.

So why is this post “paywalled”?

Because Substack gives two tools:

1. write

2. ask for support

I’m choosing to use #2 as openly as possible.

This post isn’t here to restrict anything.
It’s here to explain something:

Investigative journalism costs money — and if you want deeper, broader investigations, your support helps make that possible.

That’s it.
No pressure.
No guilt trip.
Just the truth.

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What support actually funds

FOI requests cost money.
Document retrieval fees cost money.
Access-to-information searches cost money.
Some requests are $5.
Some are $50.
Some are $400+.

Most investigations require:

• filing multiple inquiries,

• tracking responses,

• appealing rejections,

• paying for records,

• and reviewing hundreds of pages.

I’ll do the work regardless.
But having support means I can:

• file more FOIs,

• go after bigger agencies,

• dig deeper,

• and uncover things that would otherwise stay buried.

Your support doesn’t buy content.
It buys evidence.

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What you don’t get by paying

No special articles.
No locked investigations.
No tiered access.
No insider-only content.
No Patreon-style gimmicks.
No selling the truth to a select few.

Everyone gets everything.

That’s the rule.

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What you do get if you choose to support

• A role in powering real investigations.

• Early input on where FOI efforts should go next.

• A place in the evidence chain.

• The knowledge that you helped pull documents out of a system designed to hide them.

But you’re not buying access.
You’re joining the mission.

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Why this matters

The Old Guardian runs on a simple principle:

If I demand transparency from institutions, I should practice it myself.

So here it is:

• Support keeps investigations alive.

• Investigations stay free for everyone.

• The truth stays public.

• The mission stays clean.

If you want to help fund FOIs and evidence gathering, you can subscribe.
If not, that’s perfectly fine — you’ll never miss a single thing.

This post is the only paywall you’ll ever see here.
And even it isn’t really a paywall.

Because everything that matters stays in the light.

— Chris / The Old Guardian