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Until recently, Netflix charged $9.99 for a combined DVD/streaming service. This was officially billed as $7.99 for streaming and $2 for DVDs, but really, it was just a $9.99 package deal for two services that cost $7.99 separately. So when they got rid of the package deal, I immediately canceled my streaming service. It looks like I’m something of an outlier, though:

Fewer customers than expected are opting to take Netflix’s DVD-only subscription package. Netflix now expects to have 2.2 million such subscribers, down from the previous forecast of 3 million. The company also cut its forecast for streaming-only subscribers, to 21.8 million from 22 million.

In other words, DVD subscribers went down by 27% while streaming subscribers only went down 1%. Most people who responded to the Netflix price increase did the exact opposite of me.

Along with the much higher raw numbers for streaming subscribers, I guess this demonstrates that my consumption of video is just fundamentally different from most people. Basically, I think of something I want to watch and then go look for it. Usually it turned out that my choice wasn’t available on streaming, which made the service pretty worthless to me. Apparently, though, most people don’t work that way. They just dive into the streaming library and browse around until they find something that looks good. If that’s the way you work, then the streaming service is a pretty good deal.

Anyway, I’m just curious if I have this right. Those of you who subscribe to and like the Netflix streaming service, is this more or less the way you use it? Or am I missing something?

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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