Substack is loaded with former Football Outsiders and FO-Adjacent folks. Check out Doug Farrar's Substack for tactics. Matt Lombardo for broad-based around-the-league info, with chatter from scouts and agents. Rivers McCown has a Substack focused on the MNF games and stats that he is noticing, and he writes in the conversational style a …
Substack is loaded with former Football Outsiders and FO-Adjacent folks. Check out Doug Farrar's Substack for tactics. Matt Lombardo for broad-based around-the-league info, with chatter from scouts and agents. Rivers McCown has a Substack focused on the MNF games and stats that he is noticing, and he writes in the conversational style a lot of us used at FO. Frank Cooney is not an FO guy, but he covered the NFL for 50 years and does lots of historical/HOF features. Ty Dunne is here, and he writes longform features with lots of interviews, with a Bills-Packers heavy slant.
One thing you will NOT get from me is 3:15 AM posts!
As someone who is happy to pay for content but also limited by how many subs I can actually afford...have you and some of your former FO folks considered joining forces?
I feel the one writer-one substack model isn't serving the audience or the writers the best.
PROS: more well-rounded coverage for readers. More convenience for readers: one-stop shopping, one sub to manage, can afford access to more writers. For writers, can reach a larger audience, creating more exposure.
The obvious CON: for writers the total revenues generated would be smaller unless the total number of subscribers increases enough to offset lower costs to subscribers.
I feel like a FORMER FO WRITERS substack would probably have more subs in total than adding up the subs to each of the individual existing Substacks.
I just know I have subscription fatigue and because of that I, like Pete, am finding written coverage of sports to be extremely lacking. LOTS of YouTube channels with broadcast coverage, but written words covering sports seems to be dying.
These are great points and things I have thought about. What happened was, unfortunately, everyone climbed aboard Substack at different times. Merging everything would now be cat-herding. I cannot imagine how we could create one site with one subscription out of the current patchwork. So we are left asking folks like you, with subscription fatigue, to pick and choose. It stinks. The best I can do is keep remind you that the others are out there, if they fit your inclinations, time and budget.
You are right, though: written sports content is dying. It's being killed by SEO and AI, and by the venture capitalists who don't think anyone would pay for quality writing and reporting.
Substack is loaded with former Football Outsiders and FO-Adjacent folks. Check out Doug Farrar's Substack for tactics. Matt Lombardo for broad-based around-the-league info, with chatter from scouts and agents. Rivers McCown has a Substack focused on the MNF games and stats that he is noticing, and he writes in the conversational style a lot of us used at FO. Frank Cooney is not an FO guy, but he covered the NFL for 50 years and does lots of historical/HOF features. Ty Dunne is here, and he writes longform features with lots of interviews, with a Bills-Packers heavy slant.
One thing you will NOT get from me is 3:15 AM posts!
As someone who is happy to pay for content but also limited by how many subs I can actually afford...have you and some of your former FO folks considered joining forces?
I feel the one writer-one substack model isn't serving the audience or the writers the best.
PROS: more well-rounded coverage for readers. More convenience for readers: one-stop shopping, one sub to manage, can afford access to more writers. For writers, can reach a larger audience, creating more exposure.
The obvious CON: for writers the total revenues generated would be smaller unless the total number of subscribers increases enough to offset lower costs to subscribers.
I feel like a FORMER FO WRITERS substack would probably have more subs in total than adding up the subs to each of the individual existing Substacks.
I just know I have subscription fatigue and because of that I, like Pete, am finding written coverage of sports to be extremely lacking. LOTS of YouTube channels with broadcast coverage, but written words covering sports seems to be dying.
These are great points and things I have thought about. What happened was, unfortunately, everyone climbed aboard Substack at different times. Merging everything would now be cat-herding. I cannot imagine how we could create one site with one subscription out of the current patchwork. So we are left asking folks like you, with subscription fatigue, to pick and choose. It stinks. The best I can do is keep remind you that the others are out there, if they fit your inclinations, time and budget.
You are right, though: written sports content is dying. It's being killed by SEO and AI, and by the venture capitalists who don't think anyone would pay for quality writing and reporting.
Are you still in touch with Ryan Wilson?
I see him on the road and we chat and all. I think he is still at CBS.