Defector turns five next month. At last week’s offsite meetings, we celebrated that accomplishment and talked seriously about the 10-year mark—how we’re going to get there, and what we want Defector to look like when we do.
Our business is pretty simple. The odd hit podcast and grant to help build infrastructure for worker-owned publications aside, we can hire full-time staffers in proportion to growth in subscription revenue. This oversimplifies things, but the basic intuition is right: Each time we add a thousand or so subscribers, we can responsibly bring in another co-owner.
Although the business is simple, getting in front of prospective subscribers and convincing them to subscribe is difficult. Coming out of last week, we’ve got a bunch of ideas to strengthen our editorial product and broaden our reach.
But Defector’s strongest sales pitch has always been to simply get people who are considering a subscription to read more of the site. To that end: In honor of our fifth birthday, for the next couple of weeks, new subscribers can try three months for just $5.
The going rate for Words To Read Online is now $5 for one month of one Substacker’s (often unedited) thoughts. That same price will get you three months of access to the collaborative effort of more than two dozen sharp writers and editors on staff at Defector. In those three months, we’ll publish 600 omnivorous articles and a couple dozen podcast episodes about politics, culture, science, the stretch drives in MLB and the WNBA, and the start of the NFL, NBA, NHL, and EPL seasons. We’re certain you’ll find columns you like to read; you just need to give us a shot. So give us a shot!
