I created our Trade Rumors Front Office subscription service several years ago due to challenges with the online advertising revenue model. For $29.89 per year, a Trade Rumors Front Office subscription removes ads on all our sites and in our app, provides weekly original articles from longtime Hoops Rumors head writer Luke Adams, and grants access to a weekly live chat with Arthur Hill. I think we’re offering strong value for the price, and more features are on the way for subscribers.
To date, Luke’s exclusive articles have been delivered entirely via email. This has resulted in a missed benefit for new subscribers, who had no access to previously-sent articles. Sometimes people sign up specifically because they hear about a certain Front Office original we sent out. They would inquire about it and I’d forward the email to them along with other recent exclusives. This was not an efficient system, so I’ve decided to create an archive of Trade Rumors Front Office articles on Hoops Rumors itself. New subscribers will be able to go back and check out previous content as soon as they sign up.
This will be accomplished in the form of a paywall. Roughly twice per week on average, a paywalled Trade Rumors Front Office article or live chat will appear on Hoops Rumors. We averaged 14.9 posts per day on Hoops Rumors last year, to give you a sense of how often you’ll run into this paywall. If you’re a logged-in subscriber, you will not see the paywall. Everyone else will see just a snippet of the article before running into it.
Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers will continue to receive these articles via email as well. If you’re a subscriber and you decide you no longer need the emails because the articles are on the website, you can go here and unsubscribe from emails as needed. We have not yet built the paywall technology in our iOS and Android apps, so the exclusive articles will not appear there. If you’re an app user and paid subscriber you’ll want to continue receiving the emails.
Putting these Front Office articles on Hoops is not just about creating an archive. It will also serve as marketing for the subscription service. A portion of Hoops readers are interested in paying to read these articles, and I don’t think it makes sense to hide them. Some people will see the topics and read an excerpt and be convinced to subscribe. If that may apply to you, I should point out that it’s risk-free, in that we offer a 100% money-back guarantee if you’re unsatisfied for any reason.
Others will choose not to subscribe, whether due to lack of interest or their financial situation. Our ad-supported readers remain appreciated and vital to this website. It’s worth pointing out that the core function of Hoops Rumors is not changing. Luke and the Hoops writing team are still going to curate, contextualize, and analyze news from the around the game in real-time and provide up-to-the-minute transaction breakdowns, as this site has since 2012. That remains free and ad-supported. The Trade Rumors Front Office articles that will appear on this site are opinion and analysis-based, as you’ll see. We have no intention of paywalling news posts, which would not make sense.
We’re producing two Trade Rumors Front Office NBA articles/chats per week at present. It’s likely we’ll eventually paywall additional opinion and analysis posts, particularly time-intensive ones.
Whether you’re a Trade Rumors Front Office subscriber or someone who enjoys the free ad-supported Hoops Rumors, you’re welcome here. After 12+ years the site is still going strong. Thanks for reading, and feel free to ask questions in the comment section.
Tim, do you plan to fix all the bugs on the Android Trade Rumors app? There are numerous.
IOS is no better. App could use a new paint job as well. If I’m an advertiser, despite the numbers in traffic, I’d have to ask why the app looks like 2005.
Yes, definitely let me know what bugs you’re referring to. Getting development work on the apps in tandem can be difficult, but we’ve got an update in the works.
I agree on the facelift topic, though that’s a bigger investment and the vast majority of our readers are not in the app.
Example: when I load the app I get “Blue Jays Designate Jonathan Diaz For Assignment” in the first box for each of the four sports. It’s an old baseball article that stuck in baseball and now appears in all. I’ve cleared cache and downloaded again, but still the same issue.
I go back to when you quit your job and was handing out free download licenses for the BlackBerry version on Twitter. The app serves its purpose, but there are so many other platforms available, cost effective, and mobile friendly…regardless of the operating system.
You clearly weren’t using the internet or “apps” in 2005…
Beg
Just dont f*** this one up like MLBTR where it used to be broken down collections of stories and now its just these long un broken paragraphs with almost no links to outside stories as it used to have, or round up sort of posts. To be fair also how much is it really worth summarizing articles from other sites that you have to go to and or pay for to read. Like a 1 sentence summary of an espn article isnt really hoopsrumors doing much journalism or work. I do like the site a lot but you have to realize what you are and if you cant monetize it I get it, but your charging more than it costs to subscribe to the athletic for a year…
When I see paywall locked content I leave the site and go elsewhere. This is why I no longer use MLBTR after over a decade.
Maybe focus on hiring competent writers?
Maybe focus on time stamping articles and stop putting old stories on the top of the blog, with no indication what information is new.
Maybe, and this is my favorite one, try proofreading articles before you post them.
Don’t worry, you won’t be missed. Don’t let the door hit you.
You will miss me, I’m the only one who hasn’t muted you yet.
30buxks a year is actually fair price given how often I read stuff here. At first I thought it was per month ala ringer.com which is a complete rip off