Front Page commits to being there in 2024
Hometown Teams exhibit opens at Chapman Museum in Glens Falls
The Front Page celebrates its third birthday this month.
That first newsletter went out to about 50 people. The newsletter now reaches over 2,000. That’s more subscriptions than several newspapers in the Capital District.
Since my first newsletter “Time to get back in the game” on Feb. 12, 2021, I have written close to 500 columns. My former Post-Star colleague Will Doolittle joined me on The Front Page in October 2022 and has written some 75 columns.
We both wrote columns at The Post-Star and after retirement, we both wanted keep writing and give back to a community we both love.
A colleague in Albany suggested a Substack platform in 2021 as a way to publish my column and possibly earn some money.
Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, analytics and design infrastructure while also collecting payments for newsletters delivered to subscribers by email. Founded in 2017, Substack is headquartered in San Francisco.
What Substack provided was a way for writers with a product and an audience to make a living and cut out the middle man - often newspapers or magazines - by being paid directly from their readers and granting writers a certain level of independence.
While readers benefitted from direct delivery in their email, it was also an important next step for readers to realize that news, columns, commentary and analysis have a monetary value. In the past, newspapers have found digital payments to be a difficult sell, even now.
While being interviewed by Joe Donahue on the WAMC Roundtable last month, I mentioned The Front Page and the fact we were still not charging for our efforts.
“Haven’t you newspaper guys learned anything yet?” Joe said.
Joe’s point was that newspapers gave away their digital product for free for years and those decisions continue to haunt them.
Will and I are not businessmen. So until now, we have not charged a penny for our work. And while we have used Substack to deliver our product, it has not made a penny from us either.
The feedback we’ve received and the steady growth over the past three years has been rewarding. Many readers have pledged to buy yearly or monthly subscriptions when we go paid.
So we have decided to take the next step.
We are asking you to support our efforts by purchasing monthly or annual subscriptions, even though we will continue to make our content available to everyone for free.
Like I wrote earlier, Will and I are not businessman.
So let me repeat that. We are asking to you pay for a subscription, but if you don’t you will still get the product without a charge.
Here is our official request:
For the past three years, we’ve provided commentary, news and information that is not available elsewhere for free. We are asking you to support our efforts over the next year by purchasing a yearly subscription because we consider 2024 to be a pivotal year in our country’s history. It is important to make the content accessible to everyone so we can continue to grow the readership.
It’s up to you. If you enjoy the work, if you believe it is important, we hope you will buy a subscription and it will continue beyond 2024. If not, we hope you will continue to read it anyway.
At the end of 2024, Will and I will evaluate whether there is a demand for the work we do and whether we should continue.
Over the past year, nearly 100 readers have pledged to pay for the product. Some have included kind and encouraging words of why our work is so important. Of course, we currently have more than 2,000 subscribers. So beginning this week, we will be enabling paid payments. So those of you who pledged to us over the past year will see a charge on your credit card. Ten percent of that will go to Substack. Another 2.9 percent to Stripe for processing the payments.
We believe now is the time for us to do this because 2024 is such pivotal year for our country.
We are worried about democracy.
We are worried there is too much disinformation.
We are worried that local citizens are not getting the information they need to make informed decisions.
We believe our experience as seasoned journalists with some 80 years experience between us will provide some clarity to the issues of the day.
I will continue writing three columns a week while Will will continue to write his Sunday column.
If you’ve been reading us, then you know what your are getting.
But you also should know what we are NOT.
We make no promise to cover ALL the news. Our goal is to provide context and analysis of the news that we see throughout the region. Ultimately, we will be writing about what interests us. That might be a big news story, but it also might be a nice human interest story, a sporting event or something in the arts community.
We do NOT have editors or proofreaders so there will be typos and left out words from time to time. Auto-correct continues to bedevil me.
We have no political agenda. Most of you know that Will Doolittle considers himself a liberal while I consider myself a moderate who was a registered Republican for most of my life. We both hate when elected officials lie.
I do promise to try my best to hold our congresswoman Elise Stefanik responsible for her actions and other local leaders as warranted.
We hope to be a place where community members can still gather to debate the issues in a civil tone and provide other community members with information.
Most importantly, we hope to reach even more readers in the coming years and you can help us by spreading the word that reading The Front Page is a good way to start your day.
Finally, there may be some technical problems along the way. We hope not. We are learning as we go so we hope you will be patient with us.
Thanks to all of you for your commitment. We pledge to continue ours during this pivotal year.
On the brink
Any of you that have listened to WAMC Roundtable over the years will be familiar with Rosemary Armao.
After writing a column about television news’ breathless anticipation of the Iowa caucuses in January even though the result was a foregone conclusion, I wondered why they were wasting all that air time when they could be focusing on more important issues.
Armao, who is now doing a podcast called “On the brink,” asked me to be on her podcast to talk about the column and the media coverage.
Here is a link to the podcast. I certainly miss Rosemary on the Roundtable. If you do as well, you might want to check out here:
Correction
I flubbed the name of the Chapman Museum’s new exhibit - Hometown Teams - by calling it “Winning Teams.” Not sure how I did that, but I did.
Regardless of the name, there was a steady stream of visitors for the Chapman’s open house on Saturday. There was more than one visitor with a green and gold Greenjackets’ jacket as well.
“Hometown Teams” covers the beginnings of baseball, hockey and football in our region. It should attract and entirely new audience to the history museum in Glens Falls.
I was honored to have an old clip of one of my columns covering the home opener of the Adirondack IceHawks on display.
There were posters of legendary Red Wings’ coach Bill Dineen and another poster from Major League Baseball player Dave LaPoint in 1983.
The exhibit is open through March 12. Make sure to come and check it out.
Lee earnings report
Lee Enterprises, which owns The Post-Star and another 70 or so newspapers around the country, reported that its digital revenue made up 46 percent of its operating revenue last quarter and that it expects digital revenue to surpass print revenue by the second half of 2024.
Unfortunately, that is due more to the shrinking print revenue than the rising digital revenue.
Lee said it was trying to shape its business model so that it can sustain itself only on digital revenue.
“The long-term results of our strategy are expected to generate more than $450 million of recurring sustainable digital revenue within five years,” CEO Kevin Mowbray said in a press release. “With that level of performance, we will be sustainable solely through cash flow generation from our digital products.”
Lee said it made a $1 million profit in the first quarter of 2024, but its total operating revenue fell nearly 16 percent from the first quarter of 2024. Expenses also feel due to cost-cutting measures. Last year, newspapers like The Post-Star began printing just three days a week.
Lee also still carries some $454 million in debt from its acquisition of newspapers over the years.
More lights
The Light Brigade was at it again Friday night with another message for Rep. Elise Stefanik that I agree with 100 percent. After her recent actions condoning sexual assault, she should be ashamed.
The lights were displayed on the bike path bridge overlooking Quaker Road during rush hour Friday.
Generous Acts grants
One of my former Post-Star writers, Lisa Braman, was looking for a way to get the word out about the Adirondack Foundation’s “Generous Acts” grant program.
Nonprofits and communities are being encouraged to apply for any program which supports activities that address basic needs, educational pathways and economic vitality in the Adirondack region.
“Generous Acts grant making is backed by committed donors who care deeply about local communities and entrust Adirondack Foundation to address needs and identify opportunities where philanthropic dollars can make a positive difference. Since 2014, Generous Acts has awarded over $3 million in grants to nonprofits, schools and community-based organizations,” the press release states.
For more information on how to apply, as well as application details and FAQs about eligibility and criteria, visit bit.ly/GenerousActsADK. Applicants can also contact Adirondack Foundation staff by calling (518) 523-9904 or emailing info@adkfoundation.org.
Applications will be accepted online through Tuesday, Feb. 13.
I subscribed for a yearly membership. Thank you, Ken and Will for all you write. I look forward to your columns that keep us informed on what is happening in our community, the world, and in your lives.
How much are you talking? The Post Star recently raised my monthly payment to $51.00, which may not seem a lot to people, but being on a fixed income, a $10.00 increase can be challenging, especially when others are also raising their prices.