In The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism, National Review contributing editor Matthew Continetti recounts that the first issue of this magazine sold for twenty cents. “It was a flimsy thing,” Continetti continues, “some thirty-two pages long, no advertisements, few illustrations or cartoons. The layout was pinched and difficult to read.”

Format-wise, we’ve come a long way since then, even as our mission has not changed. But right now, we’re offering a price for our NRPlus subscription that’s almost straight out of 1955. Resident green-eyeshade fiscal hawk Philip Klein did the math: Our current deal works out to eleven cents per day. If you looked hard enough in the parking lot of those “random gas stations” that I revealed on an episode of The Editors podcast I apparently love to frequent, you could probably scrounge up the cash for that.

And what will it get you? On the homepage today, Charles C. W. Cooke lays it out:

Eleven cents per day to read everything on our site — including the magazine. Eleven cents per day for Dan McLaughlin and Andy McCarthy and Rich Lowry and Jim Geraghty and Maddy Kearns and Phil Klein and MBD and — if you must — Jack Butler.
Yes, we give a little away for free. But all the best stuff is kept for our subscribers. Subscribers get rid of the paywall — and most of the advertisements — so that they can read the site without encumbrance. Subscribers get to read our newsletters in their inboxes, rather than having to click through to the site. Subscribers get access to the full archives of our podcasts and photo galleries. Subscribers can comment on blog posts and pieces, connect with our writers in our private Facebook group, and join exclusive, invitation-only calls and events.

That’s the second time this week my colleague has teased me; earlier this week, he identified my place in a hypothetical news cycle as wondering if J. R. R. Tolkien had ever written about the controversy du jour. I embrace the caricature. But if you also want to tease me — perhaps about my thus-far cautious optimism about the latest Tolkien adaptation? — then you should subscribe for the chance, as Buckley “feller” Luther Abel put it, “to tell us why we’re wrong.” For the sake of a publication — and really, a cause — like National Review, I’ll gladly subject myself to a metaphorical dunking booth. (Heck, if there were enough takers, I might even consider a real one — accessible to NRPlus subscribers only, of course.)

All of these perks are well worth the low-low price we are currently offering, so do take us up on it. I would argue that the real perk, however, is knowing that you’re supporting an enterprise that, since 1955, has stood boldly and proudly for American conservatism. And with your support, which has been indispensable to us since the beginning, it can continue to do so.