This week we’ve been covering the High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers on Pirates Prospects. For the second week in a row, we’ve had enough content to do a second article drop, giving you ten premium articles this week.
Granted, our paywall is still on an honor’s system. I’ve been very fortunate that this site has a large support base, allowing me to essentially rebuild on the fly with a new approach. Or, I guess that’s now called a “Build.”
I empathize with Ben Cherington in a way. It’s difficult to be the head of any organization, creating the direction it will go in, and ultimately trying to bring a plan to life.
My own organization has seen over 11 million page views a year as a free site, and has a customer base of over 10,000 people who have purchased a book, subscription, or provided some other form of support for this site over the years. It’s been to higher points than it is right now, and it’s been to lower points than now.
Ultimately, what I’m building on this site now is a hybrid of the best parts of the site over the last 14 seasons.
Our best articles will be pushed out in article drops every Tuesday for paying subscribers. My estimate, and my plan, is that we’ll have enough content to sustain two article drops per week during the season, maintaining this Tuesday/Friday tradition.
When I first announced the article drops, the main concern was that we’d be moving away from our daily coverage. I think it’s obvious at this point that this was never at risk. At the moment, I have plans for a minimum of six daily articles on the site.
You’ve already seen four of those. P2Daily, the Daily Video Rundown, the Prospect Watch, and the Pirates Discussion have been established as core daily features. We also provide you with one additional feature per day.
In the coming weeks, we will be expanding that to two features per day. One will be a core feature that runs on a specific day each week (like how our Player of the Week article always runs on Tuesday). The other will be a player feature.
All of the daily content is going to remain free. The plan, as of right now, is over 50 articles per week, with the top ~20% going to subscribers only. The premium articles will be determined by how much work goes into them, whether that’s interviews, research, or anything beyond a writer here just sitting down and spilling our knowledge onto the page.
I honestly don’t know how this will go when everything is finalized. There’s not a site like this for any other team, and there aren’t many independent media outlets to follow. I’m creating my own path here. I’m optimistic, because of our built-in support-base over the years. I’m also optimistic because the site is coming together as I planned.
In the next week, the site will get a new design that will better display all of the new content — both daily and weekly. The paywall will finally go back up, as I’ll have time to fix any issues related to the re-implementation of that aspect on the site.
What I’m most optimistic about is that I’m to the point in this site rebuild where I can do more reporting. That’s obviously been a massive draw over the years. Focusing more of my time on managing the site, and less on producing content through my interviews and analysis has been the hardest part of this rebuilding process.
I’ve been able to get back to reporting over the last two weeks, conducting interviews with people in Altoona and Greensboro remotely. That reporting will continue tonight, as I’ll be covering my first live game of the year in Bradenton.
I expect to have some good stuff for you all, assuming I’m not left dizzy from watching the lefty who is expected to make his debut on the mound.
And on that note, I’ll see you on Tuesday with the Bradenton article drop.
Check out the articles below for today’s drop, and for anything you may have missed on Tuesday.
Pirates Prospects Spotlight
THIS WEEKEND ON PIRATES PROSPECTS
Prior to His Injury, Henry Davis Was Focusing on Managing a Pitching Staff
Greensboro Catchers Adjusting To Life After Henry Davis
Matt Gorski Has Been Getting Work at First Base This Year
THIS WEEK ON PIRATES PROSPECTS
Williams: Jared Jones is a Familiar Story With Hopefully a Different Ending
Endy Rodriguez Gets Back on Track After Swing Issues in April
Matt Gorski: A More Consistent Swing and 17 Home Runs Later…
Prospect Roundtable: Which Greensboro Prospects Are Most Intriguing?
Maikol Escotto: “There’s a lot of thump in that bat”
Jacob Gonzalez: From Minor League Rule 5 to Minor League Video Game Numbers
Jack Carey: Stuff Playing More Than Numbers Showing
Pirates Links
Prospect Watch: Mike Burrows Dominates in Altoona Victory
Daily Video Rundown: Jack Suwinski, Rodolfo Nolasco, Bligh Madris
P2Daily Articles:
- Endy Rodriguez: Athleticism Showing With On Fly Learning At Second
- Pirates Place Yoshi Tsutsugo on Injured List
- New Mock Draft and Updated Draft Prospects Rankings
