Starting today, Capitol Letter, our weekday Statehouse newsletter providing inside information, insight, analysis and wit about Ohio politics and lawmaking, is free.  

You can sign up for it here.  

You might recall that we launched the newsletter as an experiment last fall, to test a model of providing deep reporting for a specific audience willing to pay for the service.  

Writers Laura Hancock and Jeremy Pelzer aimed Capitol Letter at Statehouse insiders, people whose livelihoods depend on what happens in Columbus. We're proud to say that Laura and Jeremy have attracted a loyal group of subscribers who value what they do every day - and whose support we appreciate.  

We quickly found, however, that a lot of other people want it - many of whom cannot afford to pay a monthly subscription fee. Municipal employees. Teachers. News junkies. Voters.  

Recognizing our public service mission - especially in this pivotal midterm election year - we've decided simply to make Laura and Jeremy's work available to everyone. We will continue to explore different business models for news, along with the rest of our industry, but for now, this decision feels both right and timely.  

With the change, Laura and Jeremy will increase the newsletter's scope a bit, to provide information of value to a broader audience. But it will remain filled with news you don't find elsewhere. And it will continue to offer popular features, including analysis of public officials' financial disclosure reports and the "Five Questions" interview format.  

Capitol Letter will remain a premium, early-morning weekday newsletter, providing essential news and perspectives from inside the Statehouse and beyond. What's new is that you no longer need to pay a premium to read it.  

Check it out, and let us know what you think.