A reader holding a phone showing the Pith News feed: Need to Know stories, marked free, with bylines and read times.

Read news from real voices, not the mandate of mastheads.

An Australian journalism marketplace. Need-to-know news is free for everyone. Deeper reporting unlocks with credits from one subscription. The journalist who wrote it gets paid for what you choose to read.

Get early accessI’m a journalist

One subscription. One feed. Every independent voice.

How it works

For readers

  1. Read free. Need to Know news is free, every day.

  2. One subscription. A monthly pot of credits to spend on the Should-Know and Want-to-Know articles you choose. Unused credits roll over.

  3. Diverse thoughts, one feed. Read from a range of independent points of view in one place.

For journalists

  1. Get commissioned. Our newsroom brain surfaces what readers are searching for right now and matches it to your beat.

  2. Write it your way. Full autonomy over voice, reporting lens and workload.

  3. Get paid for being read. 60c of every subscription dollar goes to the journalist pool, shared by what readers redeem.

From $18 a month. Need to Know stays free. No credit you pay for is ever idle platform profit.

The Australian news landscape is failing readers and journalists alike.

35% of Australian news consumers used seven or more news brands in the past week, six percentage points more than a year earlier.1 A third of digital news subscribers pay for three or more services.2 Readers are hunting for breadth, and stitching a bundle together by hand.

They are also sceptical of who controls it. 77% of Australian news consumers believe media owners and parent companies influence news coverage.3 Australia has the second highest media concentration of the countries measured, with four companies controlling 84% of the newspaper market, up from 78% in 2019.4 Too few owners have the potential to influence the news we see.

The same forces hit the newsroom. 47% fewer people work for Australian newspapers than in 2010–11, down from 23,472 to 12,531.5 The freelance pool they landed in is crowded: 56% of the freelance journalists surveyed earn under $60,000 a year from their freelance work.6

Readers want more voices than ever. Journalists have never had fewer ways to be paid for providing them.

Why we built Pith News

We lost the habit of reading and engaging with news. Paywalls, ads and fragmentation made news harder to read, but the feeling of an echo chamber is what killed our engagement.

We wanted points of view, opinion and debate. We wanted to hear from the real voices reporting the news that matters, while finding a way to fairly support them.

We’ve rebuilt how news gets written, read and paid for with a marketplace for original and independent journalism. Readers get news from outside the echo chamber, and journalists earn proportionally from the engagement their articles generate.

Ever wondered if you’re actually informed?

We’ve built the metric.

Knowledge Health

A single number for how well-informed you actually are. It takes into account what you’ve read, how you’ve engaged, and shows you where your coverage has gaps. It climbs as you stay informed, and drifts when you don’t.

Share it, or don’t. It’s the metric of your understanding.

Our journalists have bylines here.

Freelance and independent reporters joining the founding Pith News roster have been published at these mastheads.

  • The Australian Financial Review
  • ABC News
  • SBS
  • The Guardian
  • Rolling Stone

They do not imply endorsement, affiliation or partnership.

Questions

What is Pith News?

An Australian journalism marketplace where independent and freelance journalists publish into one feed, and readers pay per article with credits from a single subscription.

How much does Pith News cost?

Plans start at $18 a month. Need to Know news is free with no subscription at all.

What are credits?

Your subscription gives you a monthly pot of credits. A Should Know article costs 2, a Want to Know article costs 1, and Need to Know is always free. Unused credits roll over up to one month’s worth.

Is any of Pith News free?

Yes. Need to Know news is free to everyone, permanently, and never costs credits. You can read two before making a free account, and it stays free with one.

How are journalists paid on Pith News?

60% of every subscription dollar goes to a journalist pool. Each journalist’s share is set by how many of their articles readers chose to read. A further 10% is ring-fenced to commission free need-to-know reporting.

How is Pith News different from Substack?

Substack asks you to subscribe to writers individually and do all the curation yourself. One Pith subscription covers every journalist on the platform, and the editorial tiers tell you what actually matters.

How is Pith News different from an AFR or SMH subscription?

A masthead subscription is all-or-nothing and ties you to one owner’s editorial mandate. Pith is cross-spectrum, and you pay per article you choose to read.

Who is behind Pith News?

Laura Whiddon and Leah Clemenger are the co-founders of Pith News. Between them they bring proven experience transforming editorial publications into modern media businesses, and marketplace expertise unburdened by how news has always been done. Pith News is built in Boorloo, Perth.

When does Pith News launch?

Pith News launches in Australia in October 2026. Join the waitlist for first access.

We’re always on the hunt for interesting people to join us. Think that’s you? Email info@pithnews.com.

The waitlist · coming soon

Great journalism shouldn’t be a privilege of disposable income.

Sources

  1. 1Digital News Report: Australia 2026, News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra, p.107, Fig 5.18
  2. 2Digital News Report: Australia 2025, News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra, p.125, Fig 7.10
  3. 3Digital News Report: Australia 2026, News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra, p.14
  4. 4Flew, Fitzgerald, Nicholls & McTernan, Communications, media and internet concentration in Australia 2019–2022, Global Media & Internet Concentration Project, 2024
  5. 5IBISWorld, cited in MEAA, Quality Journalism Demands Quality Jobs, News MAP submission, February 2024, p.3
  6. 6MEAA, A Fair Go For Freelancers 2024, p.6