Reshape Cycling Media

Dear readers: It’s time to take power back.

In every difficult moment, there is opportunity. We as a community of readers and cyclists are faced with both that difficult moment and that rare opportunity to seize power that we ceded years ago.

We have stood by and watched as media slowly folded and died, and we rarely questioned what our role in that demise might be. Yet our role was pivotal to the change: We ceded control.

We stopped paying good journalists and settled instead for free content. We stopped demanding responsibility to the truth instead of a drive for revenue.

We can change that today.

No, I’m not asking you to subscribe to anything. I’m asking you to build with me. You heard about the layoffs time and time again; they were the voices you trusted, the voices you knew were trying to remain true to you, the reader.

Those voices now have no home to tell their stories because the media landscape first pivoted to scraping for the same dollars, then they found that those dollars were insufficient to provide the critical service for which they had so long existed. Then, consolidation. Then, pillage.

Today, we can change that.

Two years ago, I started Slowguyonthefastride.com to provide the truth and stories I so wanted to continue to provide after my tenure at VeloNews. Then, this year, I started DawnPatrolMTB.com to further that mission and add an element of welcome, education, and community service. All of those elements have begun but have garnered little support from traditional avenues within the industry.

So I’m asking you to take power back. I’m not asking you to subscribe; I’m asking you to own the media once more. If you, the reader, are paying the bills, it’s you, the reader to which media becomes beholden…with the truth. With the best content, the most efficient fact-checking, and the most sparkling, talented voices in the industry and beyond.

How do we do it?

You guessed it. We need money.

How much, exactly?

Every one of those voices you saw shaken from the fold of the conglomerate deserves to be paid to produce the best writing, editing, photography, video, and multimedia storytelling — for you. It would take around $500,000 just to start paying salaries.

We can raise that money together. We can change the media landscape for the better, and by extension, save THE TRUTH.

If 5,000 people donate $100, we’re there. But hey, let’s not forget who else has a responsibility to the truth: the brands we all buy from. We’re all better served when those brands build a solid commitment to the truth, and independent journalism.

So demand that your brands get involved, not with ads and sponsored posts, but with donations to the truth. The media provides a service to readers, but it also provides an immense service to manufacturers, brands, the little guys and the big guys. Make it clear to those brands where you stand.

I’m starting this GoFundMe page with the hope that the cycling community will come together to support its own, demand better, and shape its future.

Independent media is the only path forward.

It’s time to step up and save our own.

What I’ll do with the money:

--Hire writers, editors, and content creators

--Invest in Brown Tie Media titles and expand them