You may have noticed that the site looks a little different today. We’ve added a login button to the top of the page, whereby subscribers can now get an ad-free version of the site – plus other fun stuff. I’d like to tell you about it and why we did it.
Earlier this month, in a court filing, Google said, “the open web is already in rapid decline,” and I get that. Internet publishing is in a dire state. We are ten years on since the “pivot to video,” an industry-wide shift from the written word to video, because Facebook said that’s where the money was. It changed how advertising was paid out, it led to the first of a billion waves of layoffs for writers, and it was based on a – I think I am supposed to call it a mistake – on the part of Facebook in how they calculated video views.
The resulting surge in underemployment, especially among regional newspaper sportswriters, was an opportunity that venture capital couldn’t pass up. They created new platforms where the value to consumers was great writers and the value to owners was those writers having less labor power. Those platforms eventually got sold to bigger media groups then degraded as major outlets cut back on their sports coverage. It got tougher to get by as a sports media person, and then it got even tougher. Social media platforms like Facebook and X, The Everything App, got stingy about links leading away from their sites, and AI has reduced the traffic that search engines send to publishers’ websites.
I suspect that RMNB, as an independent organization, is slightly better positioned than other places, but we’re facing the same headwinds as everyone else. We stay lean, we pay well, and we’ve got a proven track record, but we’re feeling the squeeze. Right now, pageview ads are our main source of revenue, but it’s not the best method. A direct connection to our audience (i.e. you) would be better.
But that’s just from our perspective. For you, we know ads suck. They are intrusive. You could use an adblocker, but if everyone did that we would wither. So here’s the compromise: subscribe through the Patreon for $5, log into RMNB, and the ads disappear. We like this idea a lot. Our favorite readers get a better experience, and we get a more reliable way to keep making fun and good hockey things – without giant corporations getting in the middle of the transaction.
Here’s how it works. If you’re already a $5 subscriber, just hit the Log In button at top and sign in through Patreon. If you’re not a $5 subscriber yet, you’ll be ask to create a Patreon account and subscribe to us. In both cases, afterwards you’ll allow the RMNB website to check your information. It looks like this:
Hit Allow and you’ll return to our site, now free of ads.
Unless you use a private browser – like Incognito Mode in Chrome, you’ll stay logged in for a very long time, so it shouldn’t be a pain, even on a phone browser. We’ve got a whole FAQ in case you need more information.
Subscribers also get a behind-the-scenes monthly newsletter, exclusive photo galleries, our bracket league (I won), a CRASHERS badge in the comments, plus some easter eggs on the site. We have more perks coming up, but we’re gonna keep those secret until we’re ready to cast them into the world.
We’ve been beta-testing the ad-free mode for a few months with the help of the #crashers, our Discord community. (At the $10 level, you can join us and then you can bully me like they do – all day, every day.) It’s working great, but if you have any trouble, just let me know using this form.
Along with the Log In button, we’ve made a bunch of other smaller changes to the site. Most of them are invisible; if you detect them let me know and you will get bragging rights. Some of the updates we made were based on your feedback, such as showing publish dates on listing pages. So thank you for the advice. Keep ’em coming: our inbox is always open.
We’re really excited about the ad-free mode. It’s difficult to be an independent sports blog one decade after all the independent sports blogs disappeared, but we believe in our mission and in our team. We’re DIY until we die, and we ain’t dying anytime soon.
We’ll be in the comments if you want to chat about anything.
