MOScout Paywall: How to Read Missouri Politics Updates for Free
MOScout, Dave Drebes's Missouri politics newsletter, is subscriber-only with no free tier. How its paywall works and how to read a Daily Update in full.
Paywall behaviour last tested
MOScout, or Missouri Scout, is the subscriber-only newsletter on Missouri politics written by Dave Drebes. It publishes a Daily Update on weekdays and a Weekender at the end of the week, and it tracks the things the Capitol in Jefferson City runs on: PAC money and campaign finance filings, candidate filings, lobbyist registrations, the General Assembly's calendar, new ads in contested districts and the rumours that circulate before anything is announced. Its readers are legislators, staff, lobbyists and consultants, and it is a paid product. As far as we can tell there is no free tier, so a visitor who follows a link to an update sees a sign-in prompt rather than the text. This guide explains how the paywall works and how to read an update in full.
How the MOScout paywall works
MOScout runs a subscriber paywall rather than a meter. Access is tied to a paid subscription, and as far as we can tell the site does not offer a free monthly allowance of the kind newspapers use.
The gate, though, is enforced in the browser. The text of each update is delivered in the page, and a script then checks whether you are signed in and swaps the body for the subscription prompt if you are not. A reader that fetches the page without running that script receives the whole update. Our explainer on metered versus hard paywalls covers the distinction: MOScout's wall is strict about who it sells to but soft in how it is built.
Our tests on 22 October 2026 through Skip the Paywall:
- A 1,377-word MOScout Daily Update from 20 October 2026, previewing a State Board of Education meeting on teacher certification requirements, covering Chappell on the new Amendments 4 and 5 and noting fresh money for the Conservative Justice PAC, loaded in full, all 65 paragraphs.
- A 1,175-word MOScout Daily Update from 21 October 2026, on a Missouri Right to Life PAC ad for Amendment 3, a resignation, new ads in House districts 96 and 105 and Ed Martin's pardon business, loaded in full, all 57 paragraphs.
- A 672-word MOScout Weekender from August 2024, on DraftKings' multimillion-dollar cheque to the sports betting campaign, Kehoe reloading his PAC, long-shot Democrats and Who Won the Week, loaded in full, all 41 paragraphs.
Read a MOScout update in full
- Copy the update link. MOScout links look like moscout.com/daily-updates-1/2026/10/21/ followed by a long headline slug, with the date of the update in the path.
- Paste it into the box on the home page and press Read Article.
- The update appears in a clean reader view with the headline and the full text, section by section.
Other approaches
- Free Missouri politics coverage. The Missouri Independent, a non-profit newsroom, publishes free, and St. Louis Public Radio and KCUR in Kansas City both cover the Capitol without a paywall.
- Primary sources. The campaign finance filings MOScout tracks are public on the Missouri Ethics Commission's site, and bills, calendars and roll-call votes are on the General Assembly's own website.
- Newsletters. As far as we can tell MOScout does not run a free edition; if you want a free daily briefing, the Missouri Independent's newsletter covers much of the same ground.
- Ask a colleague. MOScout is widely circulated inside the Capitol, and many offices hold a subscription that is shared among staff.
How it compares with other state politics sites
The closest comparison on our list is Colorado Politics, the Denver outlet that also serves a professional audience and also works through the reader. For Missouri's big dailies the picture is mixed. The Kansas City Star works and is covered in our guide to the Post and Courier, the Kansas City Star and other regional papers. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch does not: stltoday.com returned only short previews in our tests, so it is not listed. The full list of sites that work is kept current.
Subscribe if you read it regularly
MOScout is a small, independent operation, and its subscription revenue is what pays for the daily work of reading filings and working the phones. If you are in or around Missouri politics and read it every morning, a subscription is the right way to keep it going.
Try it with an article
Paste the URL of an article from MOScout and read it in a clean reader view. Free, instant, no signup.
Frequently asked questions
What is MOScout?
MOScout, or Missouri Scout, is Dave Drebes's subscriber-only newsletter on Missouri politics. It publishes a Daily Update on weekdays and a Weekender, tracking PAC money, candidate filings, lobbyists and the General Assembly.
Does MOScout have a free version?
Not as far as we can tell. It is a paid subscription without a free allowance. Through the reader, all three updates in our 22 October 2026 tests loaded in full, because the text is in the page and hidden by a script.
Does the reader work on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch?
No. stltoday.com returned only short previews in our tests, so it is not on the list of supported sites. The Kansas City Star and Colorado Politics both work.