Having your life’s work summarily shut down by a billionaire doesn’t have a ton of upsides. But, much to my surprise, there was a pretty big one: hearing about how much DCist meant to you.

You told us that you relied on our political coverage to know what was happening at the D.C. Council. You said you depended on event guides to plan your weekends. You overwhelmingly lamented the loss of Overheard in D.C. It was achingly bittersweet.

And then something really rare happened for the media industry: unequivocally good news. The community came together to allow WAMU to revive DCist.

In the past year, we’ve broken stories about go-go, Howard, mole rats, and medical marijuana. Our reporters provided up-to-the-minute coverage during historic flooding and a highly unusual July 4th. These pages have featured special coverage of climate change, the city’s homelessness crisis … and barbershops. It’s a weird and wonderful and infuriating mix, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Not only is our journalism back and better than ever, but DCist is now part of a long tradition of publicly funded news.

There are no capricious billionaires here. There’s no corporation making cuts and pushing clickbait. We’re now funded by you.

It’s also important that this work remains free to everyone. You won’t see a paywall on this site.

Becoming a member means keeping our coverage alive. It means getting to go to really cool, really free events. And it means helping shape the DCist of the future.

Join us!