Subscription Service and FAQ

 

Thank you for subscribing to The Sarasota News Leader, and supporting our award-winning, comprehensive local news coverage. If you ever have any questions about your subscription or problems accessing our content, please feel free to email Subscriber Services at: Subs@SarasotaNewsLeader.com

Our paywall provider has been Hype (née Pico). However, their system has become more and more unreliable, and we terminated our agreement with them as of the end of February 2026. In addition, we have temporarily deactivated our paywall as we navigate our subscribers to a new paywall provider in the next few weeks.

Special advisory on updating payment information in your Hype account:

We have terminated our agreement with Hype, and our paywall is temporarily inactive. While we expect to have all subscribers on our new paywall provider in the next few weeks, we have a temporary workaround for making subscription payments. If you receive a notice from Stripe (who continues as our payment processor, but whose system is not set up for individual access to accounts) to update your payment information, then please reach out to Subscriber Services at the email address in the first paragraph above. We can send you a Square e-invoice for your annual renewal, which can be paid online with a credit card, and which does not involve the Hype/Stripe payment system. This will avoid the problems with that system until we have moved the subscriber database to the new paywall provider.

NOTE: If you have a paid subscription but are not receiving our free weekly email on Friday mornings with the current edition of the SNL, please click on this link to subscribe to that list: http://eepurl.com/nI4R9

Signing in to your Hype account (accessing content):

We have terminated our agreement with Hype, and the paywall is temporarily deactivated. You should have no difficulty reading our content. If you do, please email us at the address above for assistance.

Creating a new Hype account (becoming a PAID subscriber):

We have terminated our agreement with Hype, and the paywall is temporarily deactivated. If you are interested in becoming a subscriber, please email us at “Subs@SarasotaNewsLeader.com” and we will send you a Square e-invoice for your subscription fee. When we navigate to a new paywall, those paying with Square will have accounts created for them by us. We will notify all subscribers when the new paywall provider is selected, and when the paywall will be reactivated. We also will provide instructions on accessing individual accounts in the new system.

A note on multiple users of a single subscription: The Sarasota News Leader accepts no advertising, and depends entirely on reader support to continue providing its award-winning, comprehensive local news coverage. All subscriptions are intended for individual use, and our pricing is kept as low as possible because of that. While it was easy for one person to “share” their subscription with others under the Tinypass/Piano system, that is now more difficult with the Hype system. We hope you understand that depriving us of the small amount we ask for a subscription imperils the future of this publication,  your only dependable source for local news.
In the near future we expect to offer group subscriptions for corporate or governmental accounts, which will feature access by a defined group at a discounted rate. If you need to have multiple readers logged in simultaneously, please email Subscriber Services for direction.

Changing your Hype profile (e.g.-email address, password, etc.)

We have terminated our agreement with Hype, and the paywall is temporarily deactivated. When we navigate to a new paywall, we will notify all subscribers when the new paywall provider is selected, and when the paywall will be reactivated. We also will provide instructions on accessing individual accounts in the new system.

Canceling your SNL subscription:

Should you wish to cancel your subscription, please email Subscriber Services at the address above to request cancellation.

Please note that refunds can only be given on annual subscriptions cancelled within 30 days of the payment date, less a $10 service fee (we are unable to provide refunds for canceled monthly subscriptions). After 30 days, your subscription will not auto-renew and you will continue to have access to our content through the remaining term of your subscription, but no refund can be made.

Again, if you continue to have problems, please contact Subscriber Services at: Subs@SarasotaNewsLeader.com

Thank you again for your support of The Sarasota News Leader.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: The Sarasota News Leader welcomes letters to the editor from its readers. Letters should be no more than 300 words in length and include the name, street address and phone number of the sender (although only the name and city of residence will be shown in the publication). Letters should be emailed to Letters@SarasotaNewsLeader.com, with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line. Letters actually published will be based on space available, subject matter and other factors. We reserve the right to edit any letters submitted for length, grammar, spelling, etc. All letters submitted become the property of The Sarasota News Leader.