On the subject of value

It's time for me to tighten up how I run this place, and here's how I intend to do so.

There comes a point at which you have to throw your hands in the air and say ‘enough’. I’ve been running this place for almost two years now, and if there’s one thing I’ve been unable to completely master it’s been making this Substack good value for money for paying subscribers.

I have plenty, and I am endlessly grateful to each and every one of you, but it’s time to change it so that I do offer better value, and the upshot of that is I’ve been trying out a few things over the last couple of months. The result of this is that I’ve formalised everything that I’m planning to do onto a spreadsheet, a copy of which is below:

So, a brief rundown, then. I’ve run several ‘split pieces’ since the start of the year. These are essentially a long read in two halves. The first half is for all, and will stand alone as a piece in itself. But below the cut for paying subscribers there is another half, usually explaining a bit of history and context behind the story at hand.

There will also now be three articles for paying subscribers only, on a Monday, on a Thursday, and on a Sunday. Be aware that the time slots that I’ve put in for this are for when they’re published, not when they’re written. I know how much long different things to do take, and they’re well within my tolerance on top of the other things I have to do, both in terms of work and maintaining the rest of my life. It’s ambitious, but achievable.

There are reasons why I’ve set it out in the way that I have. There are some pieces which I need to be for a different audience. There are some which I need to be for a broad audience. And there may be times when events make keeping to that exact schedule difficult for me. If anything does have to fall besides the wayside, it’ll be the pieces for all.

I’ve been planning a history of world club football tournaments and championships for a little while, and tomorrow morning there’ll be a split piece on that. The Club World Cup is coming this summer whether we like it or not, so I figured that now would be a good time to bring together a series of articles about the club game’s hitherto cast iron reluctance to actually declare a world champion.

So, there you go!

A quick update on getting this place into some sort of order. Part of the reason for this is that I’ve had substantial drops in income over the last six months which I’ve been unable to claw back. It’s been starting to cause issues, and as such I’m in a position in which I have to make some decisions over the future direction of my life. I have to prioritise making a profit and I’m hoping that this re-focus will allow me to turn things around. Over to you!