Today is a big day for Big D Soccer. We’re launching a new version of our site on a new platform.

We have moved off of SubStack and onto a platform known as Ghost CMS. If you visit sites like Sounder at Heart, Backheeled, or Hudson River Blue, you should be fairly familiar with how Ghost sites operate.

This transition will not be a big lift to you, our subscribers. If you had an account on our SubStack as of yesterday, you have already been migrated over. All you need to do is use the same email address that we had on file at SubStack here on the new site. From there, you can view your account page.

We are doing this because we believe we can improve everything we do, and this is the best way to ensure our long-term viability (more on that below). We will continue to provide a depth and breadth of coverage in North Texas that includes daily beat coverage, in-depth analysis, and informed opinion writing, all of which is grounded in original reporting.

FAQs

A little more on the move…

Why are we leaving SubStack?

The move comes down to a few things. We love what SubStack was able to do for us when we left SB Nation and Vox Media two years ago, but as that platform has expanded, its growth potential for us was starting to be limited.

What we were finding was the ability for new readers to find us through search was extremely limited.

We liked the SubStack app and the potential reach with it, but over time, we noticed that the majority of our readers didn’t use it as much to view our work as they did through email or on the website. It is possible we could have gotten more out of it over time, but this move allows us to be ‘one less app’ that you need to have in order to view our work.

And finally, there is a potential that SubStack could start to charge newsletter owners additional fees through publishing on their app in the Apple ecosystem. When SubStack already takes a small percentage of fees per paid subscriber (along with what Stripe the payment system takes), that would add up really quickly.

So, is anything missing from the SubStack site?

For the most part, everything migrated over. If you had a subscription to Big D Soccer as of yesterday through SubStack, you can use the same login here on our new site through Ghost CMS.

The only things that didn’t get brought over from SubStack were the likes on a post, the comments on a post and the ability to read our posts through the SubStack app.

The comments not coming over is a real bummer that we had to weigh in our decision to leave SubStack but at the end of the day, a lot of the positives of this move out weighed the lack of comments and likes coming over.

Note: Ghost is developing a ‘like’ system that is similar to SubStack. So, if you were a big user of that before (and we know some of you were), chances are in the future we’ll see that come back to BDS.

What is new on this platform?

For starters, we have multiple newsletters or ways you can sign up for our content. You can pick from our three subscription options.

Big D Weekly Newsletter: This will begin to only be delivered through email. While, you can view past versions online right now, that post will be strictly email moving forward.

Kitchen Sink: This gets you everything delivered to your inbox. Big D Weekly, North Texas news and everything else in between.

North Texas SC News: Only want to hear about NTSC? This one is for you.

Aside from more newsletter options, we will be expanding our paid subscriber tiers. The previous model from SubStack has become our First Team tier. Those who were Founding Members on SubStack will continue to be Founding Members. We will soon be debuting two more options that are in between the Free and First Team tier, as well as between the First Team and Founding Members tiers. We hope this gives you all the option to pay a little less, while still supporting local soccer writers.

Lastly, if you see a “Support Big D Soccer” button on a post. This is our new tip jar for one-time donations/payments. This is perfect for someone who has a free membership but can only support through a payment once a year.

How do I view my account?

If you had a free or paid subscription before, you can use the same email address that you had with SubStack on this new platform.

To see your account, edit what newsletters you want to receive, or change your subscription tier, you can log into the site using one of the buttons/links at the top of the screen or go to this link.

What will happen to the SubStack site?

For now, nothing. While we’re turning off the payments through SubStack this week, the site will remain there through the bigdsoccer.substack.com address. After this week, that site will go to a private mode to avoid new members from joining there accidentally over our new site.

Anything else?

If your questions weren’t answered here, feel free to reach out at drew@bigdsoccer.com.

📣
One more thing: we are looking for some new launch sponsors to help get us off the ground and provide some added security going forward. If you have a business or organization you think would benefit from supporting this venture, we’d love to talk to you about how that would look.