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State of the Herald: Winter 2021
🕑 Added 2021-12-11 20:54:58 +0000 UTCGood evening,
With the holiday season officially here, I wanted to take a few moments to give you all a quick briefing on what's been happening behind the scenes.
Before we get into that, though, a few quick announcements.
The Anime Herald Team will be going on vacation starting December 19. Our team's been working hard all year, and we'll be using the end of the year to recuperate and recharge. We'll be returning on January 8, rested and ready to deliver an all-new slate of amazing articles.
Starting on January 8, our Patreon tiers will be changing.
Due to increases in fees across the board, we will need to restructure our tiers. Unfortunately, this is one headache that we’re unable to absorb. However, we hope to keep any inconveniences to our readers minimal as we strive to deliver on our goals and ethics as independent journalists.
Until the January 8 cutoff, tiers will remain as-is. After this period, current tiers will become legacy; everyone who is a member of these will remain, and folks who are in the Discord will receive a special “Founding Member” title. Moreover, folks who currently subscribe under the Founding Member $5 tier will forever continue to receive all benefits of our top Patreon tier. If anything is added or a new top-level is created, it will grandfather in and receive all benefits.
New tiers will be as follows:
- $1: Access to Patron-exclusive posts
- $3: Early Access to all articles, access to Patron-exclusive posts
- $5: Early Access to all articles, access to Patron-exclusive posts, and access to the Anime Herald Discord
- $10: All benefits of the $5 tier, plus Suggest An Article
We wouldn’t be here without our patrons, and we genuinely appreciate you all. Whether you’re posting a few words of encouragement in our comments on Patreon, or you’re a regular in our Discord, we genuinely appreciate every one of you. Heck, we wouldn’t be here without you.
As you know, I’ve long sought ways to bring our patrons into the experience, and give them real power in how we grow and change. This began a few months ago, when we began polling our top-level tier about what content they’d like to see from as we reach out to guest writers.
Beginning January 8, we’re going to build upon that. Top-tier patrons will be able to suggest an article for our editors to cover. Nearly any topic that comes to mind is fair game; we’ll bring these into our regular article review process. If your topic is picked, a member of our editorial team will do their very best to bring it to life. Once the article is published, you will be credited with an “Original Concept” credit and a special thanks.
Content in Review
In regards to our content, this has been a whirlwind year! Since coming off our hiatus on March 1, we've published a total of 44 articles, or about one article per week. Through these, we've explored fandom histories of India and Nigeria, told personal tales of achievement, and explored the depths of weighty works like Patlabor and Akudama Drive. We’ve worked with fans, with journalists, with dreamers and devotees. We explored the Con at the End of the Rainbow, and we gave history lessons on all things Mecha.
And through it all, we've been able to pay writers and editors alike a fair rate of $50 per article. And that’s thanks to you, our patrons and Ko-fi supporters.. I am still genuinely floored by this, that I'm able to say that we're all here, together, in celebration of a truly fantastic year.
A great person once told me that, as you go to the future, you should always take a solid step forward. It doesn’t have to be big or small, it just has to be firm, so you don’t slide backwards. I’d like to say that, thanks to our backers, we’ve been able to take not one, not two, but several solid steps forward this year. And, as we look toward 2022, we plan to make even more solid steps forward - for you, for the team, and for our mission to elevate voices in our community, while paying a fair wage to our contributors and editors.
I am genuinely grateful to have been able to welcome Bella, Alex, Caitlin, Alicia, and Anime Commentary to the team, as they’ve brought in skills and insights that have really pushed us above and beyond. And I’m thankful for all of you who’ve put your faith in us, and allowed us to really come into our own in a huge way.
So, as we look toward the end of the year, I want to thank you for believing in us. I can’t wait to show you what we have in store for 2022!
Have a happy and safe holiday season,
Samantha
