When I first announced that the site was switching to a subscription model, there were some mixed reactions. In large part the reaction was positive, with people looking forward to what new changes would come from the new model. That said, there were some expected negative reactions.
Some of that was due to the switch to a subscription model, which was expected. The subscription model is still relatively new. I noticed a few prospect-centric blogs making the same switch in the last year, which is what got me thinking about it. I was also approached by a major online sports network about joining their subscription network, but shut that down pretty quick. If I was going to move to a pay site, I wanted to have full control, rather than having a bigger company dictate what coverage was relevant. But either way, I faced the challenge of the subscription model being new, and people either being skeptical or just downright refusing to pay for online content, no matter how inexpensive it is.
In the last two months, I’ve noticed a growing trend. Several times per week, and almost on a daily basis, I’ll get an e-mail or a tweet from someone saying that they finally signed up for the site. Some of those people mention that they held out for the above reasons — they either refused to pay for online content, they were skeptical about our move, or they just wanted to see how the site would expand before signing up. And the reaction each time was that they missed the site, and loved the new model. As for those new subscribers and old readers, I just have one message:
Welcome back!
When I made the change, I expected a lot of our readers to drop off initially. But my hope was that people would give the new format a chance, and see what we could do with actual secured revenue coming in, rather than the joke that was ad networks (where I didn’t know what the site was going to be making until 30-60 days after a specific month ended). From a planning standpoint, it is much easier under the new model. This has led to a lot more travel (including the trip I’m on right now), and a lot more live coverage this year. And my hope was that people would return and see that things were much improved over what was already a great site.
I’ve been encouraged by the responses from those of you who have returned. And not just that, but the people who have been here from the start of the new format have continued talking about how the community here is one of the best places to discuss Pirates baseball. There isn’t the bickering and the childish behavior that you’ll find at a lot of other places. Instead there is just mature debate with a lot of very knowledgable posters who don’t take it to a personal level when they disagree. That’s not only my observation, but something that I’ve seen people mention on the site each week.
As for the content, I’ve been proud of what we’ve been able to do so far. Yesterday was a great example of the new site’s strengths. Ryan Palencer started the day with a report on Keon Broxton and his recent hot streak. Then I had the news about Hector Garcia’s Tommy John surgery, all because I was able to make it up to Morgantown for a live report to get started on that story. Pete Ellis had an outstanding article on Gregory Polanco’s development to date. John Dreker had updates throughout the day in our new, live Prospect Watch, which has been massively upgraded, and only improves with John’s close focus on each game. And the night wrapped up with an article from Sean McCool and myself on why Tyler Glasnow shouldn’t be up in September, citing what Sean saw in Altoona this year, and my knowledge of contract rules. There was a lot of outstanding content, and that wasn’t just a one-day thing. It’s something we’ve been able to do every day.
As we continue to grow, we will continue to add great new features and additional coverage. The recent change was the move to a live Prospect Watch, which has been a really cool feature. The next focus will be expanding our Pirates coverage down the stretch as the team gears up for another run at the playoffs. And I hope that everyone who has joined so far continues enjoying the site. Meanwhile, I look forward to hearing from more of the former readers, who will end up being readers once again. and if you’d like to become one of those people, just click this link and choose a low priced plan.
Updated Coverage Schedule
August 9th: The Pirates have the Sunday night game on ESPN, and I’ll be at the game providing MLB coverage, along with Sean McCool.
August 10th: I’ll be covering West Virginia for one more game, and if all goes right, I’ll be seeing Yeudy Garcia, who is one of the big breakout prospects this year.
August 13th-17th: I’ll be back in Bradenton, and will have a five game series covering the Marauders.
August 18th-21st: The GCL Pirates are home for three of these four days, along with one day during the 13th-17th stretch. So expect some live coverage from the lowest level.
This is all in addition to our normal live minor league coverage from Ryan Palencer in Indianapolis and Sean McCool in Altoona.
Site Datelines
Before running this site, I wrote for an online outlet, providing articles to ESPN, USA Today, Yahoo Sports, and other online outlets. And that was the limit to my sports writing career (granted, I was also just out of college with that job). So I’ve never written for a newspaper, or an outlet that uses datelines. For that reason, we’ve never used datelines, as I’ve never seen a big need for them in the digital age. Most blog software gives the date and author. The only thing missing is the city that the story is filed from. We’ve had live coverage for seven years now, and this is our fourth year of having a regular reporter at PNC Park all season. So despite having live coverage, we’ve never used the location for a dateline, as it was known the coverage was live.
I was thinking about this topic recently. In the past, we had writers specific for each city. The Indianapolis writer would only cover games in Indianapolis. And it was the same for every city. But this year that has changed. I’ve written stories in Pittsburgh, Bradenton, Altoona, Charleston, Morgantown, Bristol, and the Dominican Republic this year. Sean has been rotating back and forth between Altoona and Pittsburgh. Pete has covered Pittsburgh and Charleston. Ryan went outside of Indianapolis to cover a game in Milwaukee and the Futures Game in Cincinnati.
I asked the question on Twitter yesterday: do readers actually care about the dateline? Or is the live coverage just obvious by the content of the article? Some of the responses said they didn’t care. Some said they liked it, but it wasn’t a huge deal. And some said that it would make it clear that the article was live coverage, rather than written from a remote location.
I figured I would repeat this question here. Do you care about the city being in the dateline of articles?
Chances are, we might start adding that, especially since it would literally take two seconds to type that extra word at the start of the article. But as someone who stumbled into a career in new media, and never came up through traditional media (and never bought a newspaper), I find these types of things interesting, especially to see how new media has changed something that used to be so automatic and expected. Leave your thoughts on this topic in the comments.
DraftKings Promotion
We have a special promotion with DraftKings, where you can get a free one-year subscription to the site, simply by signing up as a new DraftKings customer and making a deposit. Just sign up for an account (using that link), make your first deposit ($5 minimum), and participate in a contest. Once you have completed those steps, send an e-mail to Javier Vargas at DraftKings (jvargas@draftkings.com) and let him know you are participating in the Pirates Prospects subscription promotion. Javier will confirm whether you’ve met the requirements, then will contact me so I can give you a coupon code that will allow you to set up your one year subscription.
One year of site access costs $29.99. You can get that, plus at least $5 to play a daily fantasy sports game (which gives you the chance to win money), plus a free $3 entry to a DraftKings contest, all for a minimum of $5. If you only consider the site subscription, and ignore all of the other benefits you’re receiving, then you’re getting one year of Pirates Prospects access for $0.42 per month. That’s an insane deal for all of the coverage we provide.
And if you don’t want to participate in the DraftKings promotion, you can subscribe at our already low prices to get the best coverage of the Pirates’ minor league system.
