I'm also surprised more entrepreneurial journalists haven't started sports-themed Substacks. There's a proven HUGE market just for fans of the best-known college sports programs. Fans can subscribe to great sites like Tider Insider or Bama On-line, which produce excellent content and offer great comment forums ... however, the lesser-known or smaller college programs are practically begging for coverage. At Troy University, I think the athletic department holds press conferences which, often, no reporters attend.
I'm throwing ideas out there - for free. I will get Troy a little more coverage with my new Substack, but I think a Substack with great content for, say, Alabama or Georgia fans, would be a money-maker for the right person/people. There's hardly any quality competition from the state newspapers these days. The Montgomery Advertiser used to have a sports staff of about 10 writers. This paper might have one or two full-time sports writers these days.
I totally agree with your perception on the opportunity for sports/team oriented Substack content. The parallel are the many podcasts focused on these subjects.
I betcha I could get a sports-oriented place going - and guess what the them of it would be Bill? I doubt you can guess even though you ought know.....
It would simply be this -
come to this site if you are a better on all these gambling sites and are looking for somebody with no skin in the game to give you some advice about a good time in the game to "make the bet".....
I don't support these casinos around sports, but for fuck sake, if somebody wants to make some funds I think I have already proven my ability to do this - just ask my wife.
I got the Bills winning the first game of the season when the odds were 90% against them, and I've called a few other things - and while I don't support this gambling on sports - I think it ruins the game and I don't support payment for college players either - if they are gonna play this game, then hells-bells, lets start taking the game to them is what I think!
So the beauty of this is I will ask for no payment to come to my site, and if you place a bet based on what you think I said - that is on you - if you make a pretty penny out of it - send some love my way in response!
If you lose your home and your family and all you held true, don't blame me for listening to what I said in your mind.....
I'm just a dirt farmer - growing peppers in Virginia!
I like your “out of the box” thinking. It seems like a brilliant idea. I enjoy your writing style and look forward to reading your local news even if it doesn’t apply directly to me. You are talented and deserve to earn a good salary for your efforts.
Good wishes, Bill! I believe you'll be very successful, providing a much needed publication. For my local area, I'd gladly pay a professional journalist to report on local issues. I no longer subscribe to my local newspaper because it's so biased it's Babylon-Bee laughable, and apart from its politcial blather, it mainly covers if-it-bleeds-it-leads stories from the police blotters. (Sad and ugly stories that, actually, I don't need to be reading about over breakfast.) I'd be so much more interested in timely and balanced reporting on civic issues and interviews and other coverage with local businesses, cultural institutions & etc. More on local history especially. Again, my best wishes to you.
Thanks, TB. Yes, I think any professional journalist - or even a "citizen journalist" with no formal journalism experience - could easily write stories that would interest local residents. The corporate news organizations don't like the competition ... because they can't control the narrative.
On the Troy Citizen Substack you say your dad was the town historian. There should be plenty of old crime, human interest, business, political, etc. stories from that and from the 1995-2002 archives that you can re-present on the Substack. People are usually interested in what happened, historically, in the place they're living.
I'm banking or betting on that interest, Arne. When I published The Troy Citizen, once a year we produced a "keepsake" edition called "Reflections" that just focussed on local history - all the memorable events, beloved businesses, colorful characters, etc. This was easily our most popular edition. Just about every business and organization would buy an ad, which actually kept us in business. I can just re-print some of our most-popular articles from those editions.
My late father (and mother) both wrote weekly columns for The Troy Citizen that were very popular with readers. All of Dad's pieces were on history. Thankfully, I saved most of those editions and I will go through them and pick out a few to re-run. They all "hold up" and many readers today will have forgotten them or never saw them 24 years ago.
Best wishes, Bill! My dear departed dad’s family is from Decatur, and I was born in and lived in Florence til 2 1/2, and we still have lots of family and friends in the NW corner, including Muscle Shoals , as well as Birmingham. Soooo, I’d love to read about happenings all throughout the state, as well as about bits of history and local heroes.
May God bless you and your family especially in this new and extended journalistic endeavor. 🙏
Thanks, Judy. That's a pretty section of our state. As you, know that area's the "home of the swampers" - made famous by Lynyrd Skynyrd's rock anthem "Sweet Home Alabama."
I will have an opportunity to write some state-specific stories - so the Troy Citizen won't just be articles of interest to people in Troy ... but to readers throughout Alabama.
Praying for your new venture to be successful and profitable. I would love to do something similar, but we’re now living in two different states/regions. Doing the snowbird thing.
Enjoyed a moment of TV today, a guest on one of the variety shows about Alabama native, Drake White. He's a young country-soul singer with a good life story.
My point: music is almost as big a draw as sports, and the positive nature of both subjects might be good material for your Troy substack. Happy writing!
Agree, BetterOffRed. Any subject that appeals to the interests of readers is journalism gold. One of my favorite old Troy Citizen stories was a feature story on Hank Williams, Jr. who I got to visit with when he cut an album in Pike County. "Bocephus" now has a hunting lodge not far from Troy ... so he might be one of my possible new suscribers!
Bocephus cut his "Almeria Club" album right across the Pike County line. He cut the album at this abandoned house because his late father once played a gig at this "community club." As the story goes, the performance ended when a jealous husband - with a gun - came in and found his wife dancing with another man! Hanks, Sr. ended up jumping out the window!
I watched and listened as Hank, Jr. and his band cut one song for that album, which is very good and deserved a much larger audience and greater sales. By that time, the "sound" that Nashville was looking for in country artists had changed and Hank Jr's songs didn't get the radio play on country stations they once did. Personally, I like the old-style country music or the "outlaw" country music that was popular in the 1980s.
I was told by Hank's manager (Merle Kilgore ? - himself a well-known Nashville manager and song-writer) that Hank didn't usually talk to reporters when he was cutting an album. But during the lunch break - catered by a local restaurant (Sisters) - Hank came over and we talked for 20 minutes. He couldn't have been nicer.
Everybody in Troy has seen Hank, Jr. many times - plus, his friend, Kid Rock, who also has hunting land just outside of Troy.
Great idea. Good luck to you. I was hoping someone in my area would do what would be local content for where I live. If you're successful perhaps someone in my area will give it a try.
This is a really good initiative Bill. While things are mostly irreparable at the federal level, it is different at the local level. Providing local news will undoubtedly help to fix some of the ills and hopefully entice your community to get more actively involved. Bravo mon ami!
I love your idea!! You have no idea how hard it is in my area to get news as it is happening. I see a wreck on the highway, but there is no news about it anywhere.
But FB is a bastion of censorship, as I saw this summer. We had many catastrophic fires and one was at 90K acres (finished up at 190K acres!). A lady in the local community FB page said "I can see flames, they are close to my barn. Fire is at Pine and Elm Streets. We are evacuating now." FB took her post down and labeled it misinformation. All the government agencies now say "See our Fb page for evacuation information." Yeah, no no and hell no. Even if it is a place for people to come for local news...no haters. I would pay for that!
Bill, I admire your business sense in how you’ve viewed your current Substack - and in relaunching a Substack version of “Troy Citizen”. There is a shortage of reliable local news and there have been a number of new enterprises trying to fill that hole. I wish you much success in your new Troy venture and will be looking forward to updates on your progress and challenges. As a career marketing and business professional I’d be happy to provide any advisory support you might seek.
My wife and I were just talking about introducing podcasts for this newsletter and for my Troy Citizen newspaper. It seems to me I could do some Zoom interviews and just post these at my sites ... and many readers/viewers would be interested in these longer-form conversations.
I could also use these as "added value" for my paid subscribers. This might require some investments in new software and equipment ... so I need more paid subscribers.
I am presently slowly working my way through the biography of Alexander Hamilton, and note the tension between pamphleteers and the supported press. Things come around...
We have local print news (monthly or so), The Westward Independent, backed by a Substack <coapinc.substack.com> which concentrates on local mostly political issues (where the recount of mail-ins is skewing the initial provincial results tonight.)
Our local news purveyor in Canada, The Black Press, has recently been acquired by an American company, possibly related to your report. The Black Press is full narrative (The Climate Catastrophe(TM) etc., but claimed to be losing money. The Covid plandemic may have been an issue, and I didn't see the proprietor's 140 foot yacht at anchor this summer.
I still believe that in the current less-than-literate environment a video presence is necessary for financial and popular progress. Domestic studios are now cheap and powerful, you may need to establish a presence.
I'm also surprised more entrepreneurial journalists haven't started sports-themed Substacks. There's a proven HUGE market just for fans of the best-known college sports programs. Fans can subscribe to great sites like Tider Insider or Bama On-line, which produce excellent content and offer great comment forums ... however, the lesser-known or smaller college programs are practically begging for coverage. At Troy University, I think the athletic department holds press conferences which, often, no reporters attend.
I'm throwing ideas out there - for free. I will get Troy a little more coverage with my new Substack, but I think a Substack with great content for, say, Alabama or Georgia fans, would be a money-maker for the right person/people. There's hardly any quality competition from the state newspapers these days. The Montgomery Advertiser used to have a sports staff of about 10 writers. This paper might have one or two full-time sports writers these days.
I totally agree with your perception on the opportunity for sports/team oriented Substack content. The parallel are the many podcasts focused on these subjects.
I betcha I could get a sports-oriented place going - and guess what the them of it would be Bill? I doubt you can guess even though you ought know.....
It would simply be this -
come to this site if you are a better on all these gambling sites and are looking for somebody with no skin in the game to give you some advice about a good time in the game to "make the bet".....
I don't support these casinos around sports, but for fuck sake, if somebody wants to make some funds I think I have already proven my ability to do this - just ask my wife.
I got the Bills winning the first game of the season when the odds were 90% against them, and I've called a few other things - and while I don't support this gambling on sports - I think it ruins the game and I don't support payment for college players either - if they are gonna play this game, then hells-bells, lets start taking the game to them is what I think!
Ken
So the beauty of this is I will ask for no payment to come to my site, and if you place a bet based on what you think I said - that is on you - if you make a pretty penny out of it - send some love my way in response!
If you lose your home and your family and all you held true, don't blame me for listening to what I said in your mind.....
I'm just a dirt farmer - growing peppers in Virginia!
ha, ha.
Ken
I like your “out of the box” thinking. It seems like a brilliant idea. I enjoy your writing style and look forward to reading your local news even if it doesn’t apply directly to me. You are talented and deserve to earn a good salary for your efforts.
Thank you very much, Keakalina!
Good idea.
Keep it local I reckon.
Good wishes, Bill! I believe you'll be very successful, providing a much needed publication. For my local area, I'd gladly pay a professional journalist to report on local issues. I no longer subscribe to my local newspaper because it's so biased it's Babylon-Bee laughable, and apart from its politcial blather, it mainly covers if-it-bleeds-it-leads stories from the police blotters. (Sad and ugly stories that, actually, I don't need to be reading about over breakfast.) I'd be so much more interested in timely and balanced reporting on civic issues and interviews and other coverage with local businesses, cultural institutions & etc. More on local history especially. Again, my best wishes to you.
Thanks, TB. Yes, I think any professional journalist - or even a "citizen journalist" with no formal journalism experience - could easily write stories that would interest local residents. The corporate news organizations don't like the competition ... because they can't control the narrative.
On the Troy Citizen Substack you say your dad was the town historian. There should be plenty of old crime, human interest, business, political, etc. stories from that and from the 1995-2002 archives that you can re-present on the Substack. People are usually interested in what happened, historically, in the place they're living.
I'm banking or betting on that interest, Arne. When I published The Troy Citizen, once a year we produced a "keepsake" edition called "Reflections" that just focussed on local history - all the memorable events, beloved businesses, colorful characters, etc. This was easily our most popular edition. Just about every business and organization would buy an ad, which actually kept us in business. I can just re-print some of our most-popular articles from those editions.
My late father (and mother) both wrote weekly columns for The Troy Citizen that were very popular with readers. All of Dad's pieces were on history. Thankfully, I saved most of those editions and I will go through them and pick out a few to re-run. They all "hold up" and many readers today will have forgotten them or never saw them 24 years ago.
Local history "sells," per my experience.
I'm moving to Troy!
(Wishes & fishes, but u know, ♥️)
Best wishes, Bill! My dear departed dad’s family is from Decatur, and I was born in and lived in Florence til 2 1/2, and we still have lots of family and friends in the NW corner, including Muscle Shoals , as well as Birmingham. Soooo, I’d love to read about happenings all throughout the state, as well as about bits of history and local heroes.
May God bless you and your family especially in this new and extended journalistic endeavor. 🙏
Thanks, Judy. That's a pretty section of our state. As you, know that area's the "home of the swampers" - made famous by Lynyrd Skynyrd's rock anthem "Sweet Home Alabama."
I will have an opportunity to write some state-specific stories - so the Troy Citizen won't just be articles of interest to people in Troy ... but to readers throughout Alabama.
Praying for your new venture to be successful and profitable. I would love to do something similar, but we’re now living in two different states/regions. Doing the snowbird thing.
I might write a story on why the "snowbirds" don't flock to ... Alabama.
Bon Chance, Mr. Bill!
Enjoyed a moment of TV today, a guest on one of the variety shows about Alabama native, Drake White. He's a young country-soul singer with a good life story.
My point: music is almost as big a draw as sports, and the positive nature of both subjects might be good material for your Troy substack. Happy writing!
Agree, BetterOffRed. Any subject that appeals to the interests of readers is journalism gold. One of my favorite old Troy Citizen stories was a feature story on Hank Williams, Jr. who I got to visit with when he cut an album in Pike County. "Bocephus" now has a hunting lodge not far from Troy ... so he might be one of my possible new suscribers!
Love Jr as I am particularly rowdy, but
I'm an especially BIG fan of Sr...
Bocephus cut his "Almeria Club" album right across the Pike County line. He cut the album at this abandoned house because his late father once played a gig at this "community club." As the story goes, the performance ended when a jealous husband - with a gun - came in and found his wife dancing with another man! Hanks, Sr. ended up jumping out the window!
I watched and listened as Hank, Jr. and his band cut one song for that album, which is very good and deserved a much larger audience and greater sales. By that time, the "sound" that Nashville was looking for in country artists had changed and Hank Jr's songs didn't get the radio play on country stations they once did. Personally, I like the old-style country music or the "outlaw" country music that was popular in the 1980s.
I was told by Hank's manager (Merle Kilgore ? - himself a well-known Nashville manager and song-writer) that Hank didn't usually talk to reporters when he was cutting an album. But during the lunch break - catered by a local restaurant (Sisters) - Hank came over and we talked for 20 minutes. He couldn't have been nicer.
Everybody in Troy has seen Hank, Jr. many times - plus, his friend, Kid Rock, who also has hunting land just outside of Troy.
Great idea. Good luck to you. I was hoping someone in my area would do what would be local content for where I live. If you're successful perhaps someone in my area will give it a try.
This start-up cost me - zero cents. It cost at least $50,000 back in 1995 to start the print version of The Troy Citizen.
I'm going to forward this issue to some reporters from my local paper.
This is a really good initiative Bill. While things are mostly irreparable at the federal level, it is different at the local level. Providing local news will undoubtedly help to fix some of the ills and hopefully entice your community to get more actively involved. Bravo mon ami!
Thanks, Dan. You could probably do the same thing.
Much success to you in your endeavor!
I love your idea!! You have no idea how hard it is in my area to get news as it is happening. I see a wreck on the highway, but there is no news about it anywhere.
But FB is a bastion of censorship, as I saw this summer. We had many catastrophic fires and one was at 90K acres (finished up at 190K acres!). A lady in the local community FB page said "I can see flames, they are close to my barn. Fire is at Pine and Elm Streets. We are evacuating now." FB took her post down and labeled it misinformation. All the government agencies now say "See our Fb page for evacuation information." Yeah, no no and hell no. Even if it is a place for people to come for local news...no haters. I would pay for that!
Bill, I admire your business sense in how you’ve viewed your current Substack - and in relaunching a Substack version of “Troy Citizen”. There is a shortage of reliable local news and there have been a number of new enterprises trying to fill that hole. I wish you much success in your new Troy venture and will be looking forward to updates on your progress and challenges. As a career marketing and business professional I’d be happy to provide any advisory support you might seek.
Thank you, Mark. I'll take all the advice I can receive.
My email is: wjricejunior@gmail.com
My wife and I were just talking about introducing podcasts for this newsletter and for my Troy Citizen newspaper. It seems to me I could do some Zoom interviews and just post these at my sites ... and many readers/viewers would be interested in these longer-form conversations.
I could also use these as "added value" for my paid subscribers. This might require some investments in new software and equipment ... so I need more paid subscribers.
Best of luck with this extended venture.
I am presently slowly working my way through the biography of Alexander Hamilton, and note the tension between pamphleteers and the supported press. Things come around...
We have local print news (monthly or so), The Westward Independent, backed by a Substack <coapinc.substack.com> which concentrates on local mostly political issues (where the recount of mail-ins is skewing the initial provincial results tonight.)
Our local news purveyor in Canada, The Black Press, has recently been acquired by an American company, possibly related to your report. The Black Press is full narrative (The Climate Catastrophe(TM) etc., but claimed to be losing money. The Covid plandemic may have been an issue, and I didn't see the proprietor's 140 foot yacht at anchor this summer.
I still believe that in the current less-than-literate environment a video presence is necessary for financial and popular progress. Domestic studios are now cheap and powerful, you may need to establish a presence.
Best of luck and success in your new venture, Bill.
Great idea!
I have wondered for a long time at the difficulty of getting decent local news. Has this been part of ‘the plan?’
Think I will try to encourage a local journalist in my area to start a local ‘stack.