The Future of Malcontent News in 2023

In September, we committed to investigating other platforms that manage subscription services after negative aspects of Patreon came to light and the continued inaction of the platform to do better. We, more realistically I, also recognized that we were experiencing a lot of growing pains and were forced to metaphorically circle the wagons around war coverage while increasingly ignoring other news stories and several platforms. I’m happy to announce that many of these issues are being addressed, and these changes will become visible in late January and February of 2023.

Today’s announcements include,

• Our migration from Patreon in 2023
• Introducing two new team members
• Linnea Hubbard expanding her role
• The launch of a second podcast in early 2023
• Rebooting the news site malcontentnews.com and less reliance on social media
• Updating our branding
• Updating the Russia-Ukraine War Map
• A coming call for volunteers in a more organized fashion in mid-January 2023
• A lineup of interviews that are being prerecorded for our January break

We Are Moving From Patreon

We are moving to a “white label” solution for our subscription service. Currently, when you go to Patreon, it is Patreon first, Malcontent News second. Benefits include:

• White-label branding enables us to make this a true Malcontent News experience
• The new platform is SEO/SEM optimized and provides more flexibility, options, and features that create a much better user experience
• Directly embed podcasts into the new site
• Ability to integrate the Malcontent News “news website” into the subscription side, providing a dual experience of non-paywall and paywalled content
• Native video with better comment threads and the ability to add subscription perks related to commenting
• Merchandise – people have been asking for a year, and we keep saying “soon,” they have a better and far more economical solution
• Mirror of all our existing Patreon content on the new platform – their team will move everything (except legacy comments) to the new platform
• The ability for our team to gift subscriptions
• Lower fees and cost points for us – more of your subscription dollars go to support our effort

We know this creates questions!

Q: Will you terminate the Patreon service?

A: Eventually. The new site and Patreon will run side-by-side for 45 to 90 days. We would prefer shorter over longer as it represents more work.

Q: I have an annual subscription. What happens to my access?

A: You will have full access to the new site equivalent to the current level through the remaining period of your annual subscription. For example, if you started an annual subscription on July 15, 2022, at the Silver Level, you will have access to the new site when it is launched through July 14, 2023. Our provider will require having a credit card on file that will not be charged until renewal if you choose to renew. If you’re reading this and planning on becoming a subscriber, we recommend choosing a monthly subscription at this time to ease the transition.

Q: I have a monthly subscription. When should I cancel?

A: Don’t do anything at this time. Continue to go month-to-month, and we will let our monthly subscribers know when they should start to migrate.

Q: Will the existing content on Patreon be moved to the new site?

A: Yes. All existing content, Situation Reports with attached PDFs, Flash Reports, news updates, links, etc., will be moved to the new site. Existing comment streams will not carry over.

Q: What is the URL for the new site, and when will I have access?

A: We are currently working on branding, and the URL is to be determined. Stay tuned!

Q: When will the new site be live?

A: The new site will go live within the first seven weeks of 2023. We are targeting for end of January, but dependent on completing a legal review of branding, site build-out, quality assurance testing, and a go-live from the backend provider.

Q: When will you end your Patreon?

A: Patreon will end 45 to 90 days after we turn on the new site, in coordination with our technical team and our new backend provider. We will suspend new subscriptions and billing for one more month and terminate the Patreon site in the second quarter of 2023.

We Are Introducing Two New Team Members, and Linnea Hubbard is Expanding Her Role

We had previously introduced Myca Hinton and realized shortly after that we were spread too thin to support all of our channels. We put that relationship on hold, but Myca will create news content beyond Ukraine starting in late January.

Yulia Afonina is an independent journalist and educator formerly from Ukraine and living with her husband in New York. If you’ve watched education videos from United24, you have likely heard her voice. Yulia is joining us as a journalist and will provide coverage for Ukraine and the United States. She is also taking on some aspects of the back end, including branding and design. Additionally, Yulia will provide Russia-Ukraine War updates during our January break. In the event of a major event, Yulia will coordinate with Linnea and me if we have to create a mini Situation Report or a condensed podcast.

Linnea Hubbard will be taking a larger role beyond the Russia-Ukraine War Update podcast on the news side of the house, which leads to the third announcement.

We hope that other amazing independent journalists will join our team as we grow.

We are Launching a Second Podcast in the First Quarter of 2023

Malcontent News will start providing coverage for news stories beyond Ukraine again (finally), and we are adding a second podcast as the backbone of that effort. The podcast will be weekly and will have from five to six hosts. It will focus on larger news stories versus breaking news from the United States and worldwide. The main focus will not be on Ukraine or Russia, although there will be overlap from time to time. Myself, Myca, Linnea, and Yulia are confirmed hosts, and we are talking to two other people.

Each person will present one story, and then our diverse panel will discuss it for about five to six minutes.

The show will be done live on multiple streaming channels, including YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and through the Malcontent News site. The live show will be edited and released as a podcast, and our subscribers will get access to additional content. For example, when interviews are done to keep a story under three minutes, much of the discussion is edited. Subscribers will have access to the full interviews as a stand-alone audio or video clip.

We remain committed to our North Star for the podcast – the truth matters. The story presentations will be fact-based only. Analysis or assessment will only be introduced in the three-minute story part if it is required to provide context. The discussion is where our team will provide our assessment and opinions through the eyes of three generations from different backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints. The line between news and opinion will remain crystal clear. Our panel won’t always agree, and you will likely not always agree with our panel.

The news stories will also be in print on the Malcontent News site, and each of us will promote and talk about our stories on our individual and Malcontent News channels. We are adding a technical layer to automate some of this work.

This also allows me to achieve a personal goal: drive more news content created by others. I can’t do it all.

We Will be Relying Less on Social Media Channels for Content Distribution

With the ongoing situation at Twitter and the United States government actively discussing banning TikTok, it is not a smart business model to be dependent on social media platforms for success. For example, when Apple updated its privacy rules, it gutted marketing on the Facebook platform and for direct e-mail. An unintended consequence of these decisions, designed to protect consumers, is that some content creators who relied on Facebook as their primary channel had their traffic destroyed.

As another example, currently, on Twitter, we are violating their terms of service because our URL points to our Linktree, and we are on a “hit list” that was sent to Elon Musk because, for some, the truth only matters when the truth doesn’t hurt. This is not a sustainable business model for smaller news agencies and content creators.

While you will see a lot more content on TikTok (we are trying if you haven’t noticed) after the change, we will, within the confines of what the platforms allow us to promote, create tighter summaries, and there will be a lot more, “go to…” to learn more. We will also start cross-posting on YouTube and Instagram (finally) and hope to cross-post on Telegram.

The new subscription site, coupled with the reboot of the existing news site, will enable our team to share content in an environment free of capricious terms of service and moderation. Additionally, we won’t have to use Orwellian newspeak as we currently do on TikTok due to AI moderation.

We are Updating Our Branding

We are in the process of updating our branding, which is tied to the upcoming launches. The basic “M” was done in panic in 2016 with little thought and was never meant to exist for six years. We are not moving from “Malcontent News” after multiple discussions internally and with external marketing experts who universally agree that Malcontent News is a unique and strong brand that is well recognized. Changes will include branding updates people have requested and recommended, such as updating the Situation Report cover and the news website. That activity will happen through the first half of 2023. We have set up a list for prioritization, and you will see these change ripple across our channels over the next six months.

Our top priorities in order are:

• New logo and style
• Branding and style guideline document
• The new subscription website
• The new podcast
• Social media channels
• The legacy news website malcontentnews.com
• Our Google News feed
• Other materials include the Situation Report cover, lower thirds for live and recorded videos, etc.

We are Working on Updating our War Map Platform and Depth of Information

We have had a person volunteer to provide a better experience with the war map, and that process is ongoing. We have provided them with your wish list, and they are working on a proof of concept. We are hopeful this will launch in the first quarter of 2023.

We Will be Asking for Volunteers

We need help in several areas, and we will let people know what areas and what we’re looking for in mid-January. At a high level, we will be looking for,

• An admin for a weekly newsletter – we have a large mailing list that is going unused
• A Zapier expert to help setup zaps
• Assistance with Discord to reboot our server and a call for moderators and admins so we can expand access
• Help with our Telegram channel, depending on how automated we can get through APIs and Zapier
• A knowledgeable person with WordPress experience to help speed up the site and update our template as part of the branding changes
• A knowledgeable person with Google Amp experience to help customize our template
• Video editors to support current audience requests – given the amount of work, realistically, we will need more than one person to prevent burnout
• More analysts – we have had a lot of burnout in the last quarter, and a few people will be evaluated during our break if they want to continue – one can only dive into daily war trauma for so long

If you’re thinking, “I can do that,” please wait until after our January break before reaching out. We don’t want your offer to get lost in our e-mail box, and we will be clear when we’re ready to ask for volunteers and the areas we need support.

We Have an Amazing Line Up of Interviews Prepared for Our Winter Break

We have already interviewed:

• Sarah Ashton-Ciriilo – combat medic with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a United States journalist that arrived in Kharkiv on March 9, and at one point was one of the few remaining western journalists while the city was under siege
• Toomas Hendrick Ilves – former President of Estonia
• Gidon Lev – Holocaust survivor and author of the book The True Adventures of Gidon Lev

We are also interviewing:

• The Mozart Group – a Private Military Company operating in Bakhmut providing military training and rescue services for civilians. Due to the operational tempo in Bakhmut, we cannot confirm who we will be interviewing because they’re busy. We are hopeful we will be able to interview their founder, Col. Andy Milburn (U.S. Marine – retired), if he has the capacity and we can get a stable internet connection from Ukraine.
• Lindsey Alexander – A former CIA agent specializing in disinformation identification and analysis and is the owner of a company that provides boutique background screening services

In addition, Linnea is working on securing another interview and has prepared a show of outtakes and bloopers from 2022.

I speak for everyone when I say thank you for your support, your patronage, your criticism, your patience as we’ve struggled with growing pains and my health issues, and for defending the truth. I haven’t felt this hopeful about a new year since December 31, 2019.

David “The Malcontent” Obelcz