RedState VIP Paywall: How to Read RedState VIP Articles for Free

RedState is a conservative news and opinion site that is part of Townhall Media, the division of Salem Media Group that also runs Townhall, HotAir, PJ Media, Twitchy and Bearing Arms. Most of what it publishes is free to read with advertising, which is why a reader following a link to one of its longer analysis pieces can be surprised to find the article stop after a few paragraphs and ask them to join RedState VIP. This guide explains how the VIP gate works and how to read a VIP article in full. It is a how-to about the paywall, not a view on the politics.

How the RedState VIP paywall works

RedState uses a freemium model. It launched RedState VIP in November 2019 as a membership that puts some exclusive analysis behind a paywall and removes the advertising, while saying that most content would stay free. VIP Gold extends the same access across all of the Townhall Media sites, and VIP Platinum was added in October 2024 at the top of the range. Since 2022 the comments section has been VIP-only as well. A VIP article shows a non-member the opening paragraphs, a VIP label and a join prompt where the rest of the text would be.

The gate is enforced in the browser. VIP article pages declare themselves as not free to read (isAccessibleForFree: false), but the complete text is delivered in the page so that search engines can index it, and a script then checks for a membership login and hides the body if there is none. A reader that fetches the page without running that script receives the whole article. Our explainer on metered versus hard paywalls sets out why that distinction matters, and RedState VIP is on the softer side of it despite the hard-sounding label.

Our tests on 24 October 2026 through Skip the Paywall:

• A 3,292-word RedState VIP analysis of El Salvador sending commandos to Haiti to hunt the gang that took its aviation technicians hostage loaded in full, all 97 paragraphs.
• A 1,158-word RedState VIP examination of California's Proposition 2 and whether it is a rainy day fund increase or a shell game loaded in full, all 17 paragraphs.
• A 1,486-word RedState article on the research suggesting pop music has become more boring and predictable, and what is really going on, loaded in full, all 46 paragraphs.

Two further regular articles, a 623-word column and a 1,129-word satirical letter, also came through complete. One link we tried, a page under redstate.com/watch/, returned only a preview error, because it is a video page rather than an article and there is no text to extract.

Read a RedState VIP article in full

• Copy the article link. RedState links look like redstate.com/ followed by the writer's handle, the date and the headline in lower case, ending in an n-number id, and VIP pieces are listed under redstate.com/vip.
• Paste it into the box on the home page and press Read Article.
• The article appears in a clean reader view with the headline, byline and full text.

Video pages under /watch/ and the VIP-only comments are not articles and the reader does not return them.

Other approaches

• Most of the site is free. The majority of RedState's output is not behind the VIP gate, and a VIP piece is often a longer take on a story the site has already covered in a free post.
• Newsletters. RedState and the other Townhall Media sites send free email newsletters that summarise the day's posts and link to them.
• Sister sites. The same topics are usually covered on Townhall, HotAir and PJ Media, and the free version there may say most of what the VIP piece does.
• Discounts. The sites regularly advertise promotional codes for VIP membership, so if you do decide to join, check for a current offer before paying the list price.

How it compares with other right-leaning sites

The picture across conservative media is mixed. The Washington Examiner and The Epoch Times both work through the reader, using the same approach of text in the page hidden by a script. The Daily Wire serves only short teasers, National Review blocks the reader, and The Free Press serves teasers, so none of those has a guide. The full list of sites that work is kept current.

Subscribe if you read it regularly

RedState's writers produce VIP pieces several times a day, and the membership is what pays for them along with the ad-free reading and the comments. If you read the site every day and want to take part in the discussion, a VIP or VIP Gold membership is the right way to support the work.