Sunday, December 27, 2020
Subscribe to the No Holds Barred Page on Patreon
For about three decades now, I've been creating combat sports media. I've hosted and produced shows on radio, then Internet radio, and next through podcasts. I've had articles appear on countless combat sports and martial arts web sites, and in magazines and newspapers. This coming March will mark 15 years of the No Holds Barred podcast, started at a time when you had to explain to people what a podcast was.
My content has also usually been ahead of the curve, focusing on rising trends, interviews with many seeking to bolster the combat sports as sports and not spectacles, and exposing the many drawbacks that plague these sports. I've earned, the hard way, many accolades, including being named "conscience of combat sports" and receiving a lifetime achievement award about 12 years ago.
But now I face a dilemma. Besides all the problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic and even before it, a grave situation has been facing most media members and particularly those of us in sports media. There have been seemingly endless rounds of layoffs, closures of both online and print media outlets, and continuing marginalization of and chronic crises in the combat sports.
For me, this has meant that many doors that had been open to paid media work either have been closed or have vanished. Much of what is left of the sports media rubble is souped-up propaganda and public relations for promoters, networks, and the like, along with a lot of just plain old dumb stuff. Concurrent with this has been the cancelling, postponing, or major downsizing of many sporting events due to the pandemic.
So where to go next? While I've certainly been slowed down, I'm not yet ready for the pasture, and even Covid-19 couldn't shut me up for too long (to the amazement of some very fine doctors).
Fortunately, one of the things that has played utter havoc with the old financial models of the media has also provided some new opportunities. That, bubbelehs, is the Internet (I still capitalize it).
Thus, after discussions with many close friends and colleagues, in order to earn more income from my labor, I have decided to use the web site Patreon.
This site will enable me to post media, including written, images, audio, and perhaps video, most of which will only be available to paying subscribers. It is also possible that it might include a little advertising, but that may be down the road.
On Patreon, I would still chiefly be focusing on the combat sports and martial arts, with an emphasis on boxing and various styles of wrestling, along with issues relating to sport corruption and human rights in sports in general. But don't expect much on MMA at all, particularly since its largest outfit, UFC, has metastasized into a vulgar, cruel, and dishonorable spectacle. I would also include new posts, along with reposting some older ones when they are relevant.
This site allows "creators" to set up subscriber-only tiers to access the content. I will have only one paid tier, at least for the start.
From my research, I have found that Patreon subscribers are charged an average of US$12 a month. The subscriber-only tier for my work, again at least at the start, will be only $10 a month.
Also, the No Holds Barred podcast will remain free to listen to or download.
So please sign up to become a subscriber. You won't find this kind of No Holds Barred analysis and writing elsewhere.
The No Holds Barred Patreon page is at https://www.patreon.com/eddiegoldman.
Thanks, Eddie Goldman
Comments:
Post a Comment
