Apparently, my goals for the HoriZone Roundtable were quite unrealistic.
Yes, they were lofty financial goals, but I thought, after overseeing the publication of over 1,500 articles and recording and releasing over 300 podcast episodes, I was of the impression that we had built enough of a reputation that our readers and listeners would provide us with the support we were seeking.
That turned out to be a bold assumption.
As it turns out, only the people who’ve long supported us either through Patreon or elsewhere chipped in. It’s strange to see the Web traffic roll in for our articles and podcast episodes, not to mention the countless followers across social media. And yet in the end, it’s only ever the same people every single time. That’s not really fair to put it all on them, is it?
Before we get into what happens next, I would like to shout out those who did donate. They include Horizon Boy, Rob Kleidman, Robert Walton, Kevin Beers, and Tristan Freeman, all of whom are current Patrons. We’d also like to thank additional donors Robert Emmerson, Brian Maloney, Chris Schumerth (who happens to be one of our IU Indy writers), Hank Durkin, Shawn Sullivan, Mark Owens and Sara Urban.
And, as always, we thank our additional Patrons, past and present, who have financially supported our work: Kyle Rossi and Greg Kula (aka the guys who’ve covered Cleveland State before Cleveland State was cool), Jon Durda, James Squire, Rick Meyers, Seth Coffing, Kristy Sipiorski, John Nolan (aka our favorite play-by-play guy!), the Bromenschenkel family, Jim Capretta, Kirk Bradley, Shonda Shon, Gary McCarrick, Jack Olshenske, Jimmy Lemke (our co-founder), Giovanni Moceri, Joshua Belgen, Michael Dynes, Rev. Tyrone Nelson, Jeff McNerny, E V (sorry we don’t have a full name for you!), Gabriel Lindsay, Dalon Brown, Jason Perdue, Jeremy Johnson, Michael Starr, Kevin Pytleski, Porter Westfall, DQ Cole (yes, THAT DQ Cole), Jordyn Mecale, Stavro Kiryakoza, Josh Griesbach, Kyle Craven, Jerry Schultz, Cassie Schiltz (yes THAT Cassie Schiltz), Joe Lanser, and Matthew Murphy.
So…what happens next?
My first instinct was to end the publication of new material at the end of the season, as well as have all socials go dark. All Patreon subscriptions would also have been cancelled as well.
But why should the Patrons suffer? Better yet, why should we?
As promised, all those proceeds have been distributed to our writers. My original goal was to raise enough to cover payments into February. Since we fell way short, I’ll pay whatever we have. They worked hard to be compensated. I’m sorry everyone outside of our faithful Patrons and donors didn’t think that they should.
I’ll leave the Donate page up, for whatever’s that’s worth. Should a pang of guilt overwhelm you, we’re okay with you using a donation to us as penance.
But there are absolutely going to be some changes, starting with the off-season.
So, you know how we published feature stories over the summer? Well, that will still be happening. That’s the good news for those who contributed last year, and I hope do the same this year. What’s the bad news, you ask? Well, if you’re not a Patron, you won’t get to see them, unless you can become a Patron, which you can do for as little a $1 a month at patreon.com/horizoneroundtable.
That said, if you happen to be the writer or subject of one of our features, I’ll be providing free access to those individuals.
In addition, for those of you who donated to us, we will also grant you free Patreon access for the rest of the year. As a Patron, you will get access to our features, as well as early access to all of our Preview Week articles. I’ll be emailing everyone with the details about this and sending you an invitation as a separate message.
Naturally, sponsorships are still on the table, and if you know of a business that would like to partner with us, send them our way and have them email us at horizonroundtable@gmail.com. As mentioned, a title sponsor for Preview Week is one of our primary objectives, as it is our busiest time of the year, so that’s definitely up for grabs.
I haven’t exactly decided what next season looks like for us or, more importantly, you. But don’t get up in arms in the event we can’t cover a team because nobody will write about them unless they’re getting paid. I was clear in laying out the situation that I can’t do this alone. But so many of you are totally okay with leaving it that way.
How am I supposed to feel about that, exactly? That in spite of the work that all of our writers put in, the best that they’re going to get out of all but a few dozen Patrons and donors is a pat on the back? And why? Because we’ve been conditioned to expect outlets like ours to just run on likes and attaboys, and writers aren’t worth even $1 of our money? It’s unsustainable and, to me, unacceptable.
I haven’t lost the drive to keep this site going, but know that this is something that weighs on me heavily and will certainly weigh on the future of the HoriZone Roundtable.
