EVERYDAY JOURNAL - THURSDAY, DEC 28, 2023

SUBSCRIPTIONS.

Maybe it is about ninety years late, but better late than never, may I present to you the New Deal.

This morning, I started reading an article about how college football had eaten itself this year.

Now I am a football fan, and I have watched with some dismay this year how some of these athletes can get paid for endorsements now, and how certain teams wish they were in different leagues, just like other status quos are questioned, and have become fluid and changeable.

As I became interested in this article, I was presented with a popup that would allow me to pay for a subscription to the Wall Street Journal. I find it very rare currently to be able to use a great number of websites without having to navigate pop-ups wanting something from me, usually my money.

And, having grown up watching football on TV, I find it disconcerting to discover a good number of games have been put behind the paywall of ESPN or some cable source.

We have become potential scamees, if we use Facebook, Google, or our cell phones. there are ways to get out money that extend far beyond the regular working stiff’s imagination.

I finally have become so weary of it, that I have finally made a decision. after wrestling with my plans for my blogs and Substack newsletters, I have finally worked it out.

I hear and understand that some writers make unbelievably awesome amounts of money on subscriptions to their Substack newsletters, but as for me and my No-Stupid-Theories Tour, we will remain free forever, no matter how great the need or

how difficult the temptation is.

There will be a couple of ways a reader might participate and support us, even buy a subscription, but no one will ever be restricted for not doing so. This is the everyman’s tour.

We may have other content for sale from time to time, such as books, but the reading of this blog will never be kept behind a paywall.

I know that the bulk of my writing at this point is with and for Medium, so I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot and sound as though I am condemning all paywalls. I, for one, am a Friend of Medium, and I began here knowing how this site is set up.

I simply don’t like situations where people try to milk everything for any money they can get. If it’s always been free, don’t realize it can be a profit center. Don’t surprise me with so many pop-ups, that I can’t even finish reading the information I was searching for.

I may someday set up a pay site, but not this one. I want as many subscribers as I can get here. I do believe in paying my house note and buying some groceries, too, but I truly believe if you do the work, the pay will come.