Reader questions, answered.

Start at Sign up and enter your name, email address, and a password of at least eight characters. Brassbird News sends a verification link to your email. Open that link, then sign in with your email and password. Email verification is required before sign-in; if the message does not arrive, request another verification email from the sign-up flow.

After signing in, open your Profile to see the name and email on your account, check whether your email is verified, and reach your reader alert and subscription controls.

Browse the public Coverage topics directory, which lists topics with published stories. Open a topic archive to browse its stories; sign in there to follow the topic. Published story pages also have follow controls for their coverage topics.

Open Followed topics in your reader dashboard to see your follows, visit a topic archive, or unfollow a topic. The same screen also contains the separate followed-topic email alert preference.

No. Following a topic does not turn on email alerts. The alert preference is a separate, off-by-default setting in Followed topics and Profile. When enabled, it sends an email for an editor-approved story matching a topic you follow; turning alerts off leaves your follows unchanged.

Published stories marked for public access can be read without a subscription. The public preview for a subscriber-only story shows its headline and subscriber-only label; the story text and excerpt are withheld until access is verified.

Sign in to the reader account linked to the subscription. Brassbird News provides the full story only when that account has a recorded reader entitlement and the subscription status is verified as active. If you do not have active access, review the current reader plans on the pricing page; if you already subscribed, sign in to the account used for checkout.

The active plan list below uses the same enabled-plan catalog as the pricing page and shows each plan’s current name, USD price, billing interval, and access terms. Review the pricing page for current availability and checkout details.

Open Profile to check whether an active reader subscription is verified on your account. When one is verified, Profile provides a Manage subscription action that opens the billing portal. If no verified active subscription is linked, Profile points you to the pricing page.

Sign in or create an account, then use Save to reading list on a published story. Open Reading list in your reader dashboard to revisit or remove saved stories.