I did this a lot early after taking over - and then football season came and there was not much additional information to share but wanted to add some thoughts about our progress.
- One of the things I really wanted to do was make sure we upped our content and I think we did a prertty good job of that during the season. While I would have liked to keep better pace on the basketball games, we have still worked to bring you at the very least a recap of every game.
- The thing I wanted to do with a person to come in an be the 'growth' partner up front fell through before we got started and then with the season, it all kind of took a backseat to getting as much content as possible. So I added Lee to get some recruiting articles going while I tried to focus on team stuff. The thing is, though, that writers cost money and we don't have a ton to hand out right now - at least not the amount it would take to create growth strictly from more content.
- I decided to start some low level advertising to get some more people to at least come check out our site and peruse the articles, boards, etc. Because it is actually cheaper to get some advertising (and easier to see results), the plan is to get some generic growth and then work to get another writer on board. I recognize that the weakness here is that we need to have content - but even J-School interns are not free anymore so we are in the chicken and egg conundrum (scientiifically speaking, there is no conundrum with which came first, but a valid point for this context!): recruiting content gets more people to pay subscription fees, but we need those additional subscription fees to pay the writer. Hence - advertising. I can use small organic advertising campaigns to test the market and see what we can do for a lot less than a writer would cost me.
- On the same front, I have been doing a lot of freebie articles and will start making more of those premium. I wanted to do some things that would show the value of our content to people who wanted to see what we are about. Well, it's been nearly 7 months since I took over and I think the value of being a member has to include more exclusivity in the content we put out. Essentially, the only thing that will be 'free' is stuff that can be consumed anywhere like simple game recaps and publicly available videos. I might continue to make the Sunday Morning Sidewalk series free since that has become more or less a weekly version of my personal notes and thoughts.
- There are always things we can do better and I want to take some time to thank everyone for their assistance with this over the last seven months. I have tried to push content and sometimes have not been my own best editor, so to those that sent me notes on some of those mistakes, thank you. I appreciate it more than you know. Thanks for all of your patience and kindness as we continue to work on reset for the site.
- It has not helped that the day job got a bit crazy right before the holidays and we are just staritng to pull out of a long term shortage of staff that should at least free up a little bit more of my time heading inton the spring and summer.
- You are all the reason I want this to work. You deserve the best site possible and I am always open to your thoughts on how we get better within our known constraints. Always feel free to reach out to me if you have thoughts. You can do it here or via email at
sreed3939@gmail.com
