Some news: We're going premium
About three months ago, I launched this newsletter. In my introductory post, I asked myself the following question: Why a newsletter?
Here was my answer:
My Michigan sports musings are typically confined to Twitter and to anyone who’s stupid enough to respond to my text messages during tense moments of games. I’d like to expand that a bit and create a space where I can share some thoughts on a platform that allows me to ramble a lot, which I tend to do. It also gives me an opportunity to spend less time on Twitter, which should be any sane person’s end goal.
Since that launch, a few things have happened:
I’ve written more than 50,000 words worth of weekly newsletters. And it’s been a blast. It’s been really cool seeing the engagement that’s happened as a result and it’s scratched an itch that I really haven’t been able to scratch when it comes to providing insight on Michigan sports.
That lure of spending less time on Twitter that I mentioned back in March remains. In fact, there’s a strong desire to spend even less time on that platform. It’s still fun cracking jokes and having some fun every once in a while, but it’s truly exhausting dealing with the (very) vocal extremes on basically every topic I’d be interested in having a reasonable discussion about.
This whole coronavirus thing happened. Not sure if you’ve heard about it, but it’s been a pretty big deal. I’d suggest reading up about it.
That third bullet point has led to a more flexible work schedule for me. And as a result, it’s opened up more free time than I’d typically have, and it conveniently coincided with the launch of my newsletter. I’ve used a lot of that time to work on in-depth posts for the newsletter and trying to grow out its reach. I’m glad I’ve done that, because this has been fulfilling and a great way to keep my sanity. But I also fear that it has created unrealistic expectations for what I can do in this space going forward.
My job that pays the bills is my gig with The Dallas Morning News, and it’s a job I love very much and it will continue to be my top priority. As sports start to creep back and we get into the fall, my windows of available free time to do things outside of my job responsibilities will be few and far between. I oversee our college football coverage, our golf coverage, our NHL coverage and our overall digital strategy. All three of those sports are likely to be active in the fall, and the digital responsibilities aren’t seasonal.
So this means I have two choices when it comes to this newsletter:
Adjust the expectations and produce less frequent/less in-depth content
Find a way to justify continuing to sink this much time into a hobby on the side
I think I have a plan that checks both of those boxes, depending on your preference.
Starting next week, I’m going to move this newsletter to a premium model.
Hopefully this gives you the choice that best serves your needs. If you want in-depth coverage, you can continue to receive that here — but at a modest cost. If you just want the occasional free e-mail in your inbox, you can continue to receive that here, too — but it will be at a significantly reduced frequency.
I will have a monthly ($6.99/month — nice) and a yearly ($69 — nice again) subscription offer. This Thursday night (5/21)’s newsletter will be my final recurring “free” offering. I will sprinkle in some free newsletters in the coming months, but the vast majority of my newsletters going forward will be locked for premium subscribers only.
Becoming a premium subscriber will yield more than just the ability to read weekly newsletters, too. I plan to add more content and introduce what I hope will be some fun community perks. More on that below.
I understand that not everyone will have the means to pay for content (or they may not think that what I produce is worth paying for, which is completely reasonable to think, too). But I’d like to continue to produce smart, in-depth coverage for those that still want it. It’s just not feasible doing it strictly as a hobby going forward.
Like I did with my original introductory post, I’ll try and cover the whats, whys and hows below:
What will a premium subscription get you?
Here’s what you can expect to receive as a premium subscriber:
— Weekly mailbags: This is what you’ve been getting, and this will continue to be a weekly staple. You ask the questions, I answer them. Easy enough.
— Standalone premium posts: Right now, I’m just letting everyone’s questions dictate which things I go in depth about. But I’ll start sprinkling in some columns on topics I want to explore more about that others just haven’t asked about yet.
— In-season coverage: I’ll have some additional weekly staples once college football season comes around, too. This isn’t fully mapped out yet, but a tentative plan is:
Game reaction pieces (10 takeaways after each game)
Weekly Big Ten Power rankings
Weekly predictions
Weekly top 25 poll
— Subscriber perks: These are some non-content offers that will be available
Pick’em contests (w/ prizes)
I’ll have community-wide, season-long college football pick contests. Both straight and against the spread. It’ll be free to enter, but there will be prizes for active premium subscribers.
Free fantasy college football league (w/ prizes)
Same deal as above. I’ll host a fantasy college football league (potentially multiple ones, depending on the level of interest) for active premium subscribers. No additional cost to play, and we’ll have prizes for league winners/runner-ups.
Premium group chat/Slack channel
This will depend on interest and logistics, but I want a way where members of the community can chat and discuss things. A group chat or Slack channel seem like the most logical candidates.
Exclusive e-mail access
I haven’t been great at responding to non-mailbag question e-mails to our bagofbell@gmail.com e-mail. If you’re a premium subscriber, I’m 100% committed to answering anything and anything sent my way, whether it’s a sports question, life question, networking request or anything else.
Newsletter commenting
Starting now, I’m closing comments on newsletters to premium subscribers only.
— Premium threads: Like I mentioned earlier, I’m interested in spending less time on Twitter this fall and beyond. Substack has a thread option, and I envision having a new thread each week where subscribers can discuss the week at hand, etc. Not a full-on message board, but a good place to have some back-and-forth and discussion about that week’s matchup without having to wade through the landmines of stupidity on Twitter.
— Other things in the works: I don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver, but there are other things I’d like to eventually put into the rotation, depending on how much this thing grows. That could include offerings like podcasts, guest posts, and things of that nature.
Why pay for content?
I’m going to briefly hop aboard my “pay for content” soapbox. Sorry, it’s the journalist in me coming out.
Like I mentioned above, I know not everyone will be interested in paying for content. And that’s absolutely your prerogative. But my newsletter notwithstanding, I think it’s incredibly important to support journalists and creatives with your wallets.
If you get your news from message boards or aggregation sites, ask yourself where those places would be without the original reporting to be aggregating in the first place. Then take notice of what’s happening at these newspapers and media organizations that employ these journalists. There’s a clear direction in where things are trending and it’s not a good one. Journalists are being laid off, furloughed and getting their pay cut. Newsroom staffs are getting leaner by the year/month/week(!) while journalists are being asked to do as much or more than they were required to do when they were part of much larger staffs. It’s a very scary time for journalists.
Now, to be clear — I am not going to be “reporting” on the team. I will hopefully provide some insight, analysis and entertainment, but I’m not here to be an insider. I want to be very up front about that. I’m a graduate of Michigan and a fan of Michigan and my coverage will be coming from that perspective. I’m not going to be breaking news. There are already a ton of great journalists in Ann Arbor doing that, and that’s not a space I can differentiate myself in (nor is it a space I’d be interested in trying to compete in). If you want to support great Michigan journalism, subscribe to The Athletic or The Detroit Free Press or The Detroit News. If you want great recruiting coverage, subscribe to 247Sports or The Wolverine. If you want unique, Michigan hoops-specific coverage, UMHoops.com is the place for you. There aren’t subscription offers for other great services, like MGoBlog, Maize n Brew or The Michigan Daily, but I highly recommend you support those institutions and their sponsors/advertisers, too.
(And hey, if you’re interested in supporting non-Michigan journalism, a good place to start would be with the work I’m involved in: The Dallas Morning News has some great subscription offers, too)
I’m not going to be telling you what the news is. I’ll be telling you what the news means. And hopefully it becomes a place where rational, smart Michigan fans can come together as a community to talk about sports and anything else that’s on your mind. I hope that’s worth the price of a beer at the bar once a month for you.
How to become a premium subscriber
So you’ve heard the spiel. Now here’s where you take the leap. If you have questions, comments, concerns or want to talk about any sort of barter arrangement, shoot me a note: bagofbell@gmail.com.
If you’re ready to sign up for a premium subscription, you can do so below:
You can also give a gift premium subscription to someone:
And if you’re ready to say good-bye, no hard feelings. Please consider tomorrow’s free newsletter a parting gift. And thank you very much for engaging up until this point.
— Scott