The Paulick Report, the leading independent publication covering American horse racing, announces the formation of a reader support program.
Since its launch in 2008, the Paulick Report has been sustained exclusively through advertising sales. The publication’s website and email newsletters will remain free of charge, but readers who wish to support the organization’s work may now subscribe to its bonus content stream on Patreon.
“Through the years, we’ve had readers tell us they appreciate our work, especially our regulatory and investigative reporting, and that they’d like to support us,” said editor-in-chief Natalie Voss. “Usually we’d refer them to our advertising director, but they don’t always have products or services to advertise to a racing or equestrian audience.
“When we surveyed readers in 2021 about their feelings on a reader support program, the response was pretty positive. Most even said they didn’t want anything additional in return for participating, but we felt we should provide them with some value.”
Patreon is a secure platform utilized by individual podcasters, reporters, and artists to support their work through memberships and build community with their audience. Subscription payments are processed via Patreon and bonus content is housed exclusively there. Users can learn more about it here.
The Patreon program offers three different subscription levels at $5/month, $9/month, or $20/month. Each grants the user access to additional content from the Paulick Report staff and contributors. The content includes previews of upcoming stories, opinion or editorial musings, exclusive Q&As, and more. For users who miss the comment section on the Paulick Report, the Patreon stream does offer comments to subscribers and is fast becoming a miniature version of the community that once lived on the main site. Top-tier subscribers will also receive a free Paulick Report baseball cap after three consecutive months’ subscription.
“The reality is that the publishing world is changing; relying on advertising alone is no longer a sustainable financial plan,” said Voss. “We’ve always considered our content to be centered around readers – what they’re curious about, what worries them, what they respond to. It seemed natural to meld these two elements together and give them the chance to support our work while seeing behind the curtain a little bit if they want to.”
Readers who don’t want to join the program will not encounter any changes to their email subscriptions or any paywalled content on PaulickReport.com.
The program launched formally in fall 2022, and response from the readership so far has been positive and enthusiastic with high retention rates.
To learn more about the program, visit the Paulick Report Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/paulickreport
Contact: Natalie Voss, Paulick Report Editor-in-Chief, natalie@paulickreport.com