The Future of Malcontent News (Patreon)

I had wanted to announce this two weeks ago but - COVID. I'm still dealing with post-COVID symptoms but not to the "long COVID" threshold. I've hinted at the future and I'm ready to share with our supporters what that future will look like. All of this will roll out over the next 30 days, some things faster than others.

I have dropped a couple of marketing clients and made a commitment to do this 100% full-time. That also means I need to triple the current number of Patreons in the next 3 to 4 months (or build revenue streams on YouTube, etc., etc.) or - gulp - I made a bad life choice. Reaching 2000 subscribers is a tall order, less than 1,000 Patreon users ever get there.

The new direction also includes new Patreon-only benefits.

Live Studio Shows: We use to do this from 2019 and into early 2022. The War in Ukraine and a strong focus on TikTok derailed this effort.

2 days a week - Tuesday and Thursday
4 PM Pacific Time to better support our European subscribers/followers
Tuesday - hot topic of the week
Thursday - align to our core values as a news agency
Live or prerecorded guest interview
Show length - 30 minutes
Converted to a podcast for distribution the next day
YouTube - Twitch - Facebook

Live Studio Show: Once a month on a Sunday - repeating week to be determined
4 PM Pacific Time to better support our European subscribers/followers
Week in review, Ukraine War summary, audience questions
Show length - 60 minutes
Converted to a podcast for Monday distribution
YouTube - Twitch - Facebook

Weekly Radio Show
I have a standing offer to host a radio show that would be broadcasted on 450 stations. We're going to start the contract discussions for this in the next week. This likely would be post-production only pulling from bits of the studio shows to create the pre-recorded radio broadcast. That's all I can say about this right now.

Ukraine War Podcasts: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and on days of big news
Operationalize the Situation Report into a podcast format
The podcast will come out 24 hours after the report is released - direct subscribers still get the news first
Done by a third party (we have a person!)

One Written Story a Day for Malcontent News website: 400 to 600 words- I would say for our international audience this is, "so what, big deal," to be a candidate as it will be Pacific Northwest centric with occasional national stories

Hire two writers to provide two additional stories a week: 400 to 800 words
Writers are already hired
We have a third writer that honestly I need to have a sit down with and go, "Hey, are you going to submit or not" If yes then we would have 3 - creating 10 stories a week

One investigative article a month: 800 to 1000 words
Key topic to be determined based on leads, tips
My favorite work - I need to get back to this

Three TikToks a day
Cross-posted to YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook
7 AM - 12 noon - 6 PM Pacific Time (roughly)
Breaking news when needed
Cross-promote podcast topics and website news stories as needed
Guest creators and authors creating their own TikToks to share on the channel
TikTok remains a critical channel to grow our audience and we fought so hard to protect our account

Weekly Q&A with Patreons on Discord
Voice Discord  - day and time TBD - will be consistent
30 minutes length
Ask me anything format
Questions can be submitted in advance
Patreons only - no rebroadcast

Repurpose Ukraine combat videos, news stories, etc on YouTube and Twitter
Cross-reference the content on TikTok
Make it easier for people to find content we refer to

Weekly Ukraine War Summary Podcast for Patreons Only
Sunday - will review Sunday to Saturday prior
10 to 15 minutes
More of an assessment report than a repeating what was already shared

Two external stories a month (in-house created news stories where we go to events, get out on the street, real news)
Something we use to do - and we're darn good at it
Create written content
Share on podcasts

Scale back the size of the Situation Reports
They take 5 to 10 hours to create and it isn't sustainable because we are ignoring almost every other channel

I will be reaching out to people who offered to help and provide technical services over the next 3 to 10 days. I'm still very much day-to-day and have to capitalize on bursts of energy when they hit.

Merch
People have been asking and we have designs. I need someone to set up the store (technical help and identify the best solution out there, etc.) We will be doing outreach.

We will likely do some sort of Patreon incentives such as subscribe and at X number of months at Y level you get Z. That's TBD right now.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Big changes are coming!