Introduction

As has become apparent over this weekend, we are launching a number of new ideas on this blog.

On Saturday, I launched the 'Richard Murphy's view on' series, and yesterday I published the first of the 'Debate Ammunition' series, which we hope will support most of the videos we now produce on our YouTube channel. Second versions of each of these are out this morning.

Simultaneously, I suggested that we are now going to produce more of our material on Substack than we have in the past and, to emphasise this, began the production of a new series on Reform and the challenge it presents on that platform, whilst providing links from here.

Consequences

Some people have expressed concern that this might mean I will now reduce my effort on this blog or begin to let it wither. Others have expressed concern that this might represent a move towards a paywall in due course, and so, having put these ideas out into the open, I want to explain the thinking behind them and where, at present, I am hoping this publishing strategy will lead.

Memberships, or not

I admit that there has been quite a lot of agonising amongst the team here over the last few months over how we wish to undertake our work. When I had Covid, yet again, in early March, I felt quite strained by the volume of work that I was taking on and simultaneously found the production of YouTube videos at that time quite hard because I developed a slight speech impediment as a consequence of Covid, which potentially made speaking to the camera quite difficult. I am pleased to say that this particular problem now seems to be, very largely, over. According to Jacqueline, there was a clear medical explanation for this, but all Thomas and I are relieved about is that video editing has become much easier again. It did, however, warn us not to be over-reliant on YouTube.

At the same time that this issue developed, so did the potential consequences of the war between the USA, Israel and Iran become clear and, just as I have been warning that the government, businesses, banks and households need to prepare for these potential consequences, so have we been thinking about what we might need to do so.

Financial stability

Keeping the whole Funding the Future operation going now costs, at a minimum, between £75,000 and £80,000 a year, allowing for some reinvestment. We have been fortunate that, so far, we have been able to cover these costs, with a small excess being shared between Jacqueline and me in proportion to our contributions, with my own rate of return on time expended being substantially less than the minimum wage on hours involved. Revenues have come from a combination of payments from YouTube and donations, with YouTube payments being much the larger part, in the ratio of about two to one.

There is, however, a problem with this business model, which is that it is all too easy to imagine that revenues from YouTube, which are always very variable and unpredictable, might decline significantly if we face an economic recession, as I think is likely. The consequence would be that, at the very time when we might have the most useful things to say, our ability to say them, which is now dependent upon the contributions that James and Thomas can make to the production of materials for this channel, might be reduced. Unsurprisingly, that worries me.

Having said that, I am extremely reluctant to look at the use of membership programmes on this channel, YouTube, or Substack. There are very good reasons for that. Quite simply, I would like to keep our material free to anyone who wants it because I believe in equality, I think education should be free, and I do not want anyone excluded from the information we produce because they cannot afford it. So, having investigated and researched all these options, with James being heavily involved in that process, we have decided not to pursue them, at least unless we are forced to.

Content delivery

We would, instead, like to concentrate on producing the best quality content that we can to explain how I, in particular, view the world and the solutions that are available to the problems that we face, and to empower as many people as possible to advance the arguments that we promote in the way best suited to them. Our research on membership suggests our reader and viewer engagement rates on this channel are exceptionally high, with a very large number of those commenting here and on YouTube (where the comment rate tends to be much higher) effectively asking for ammunition to engage in debate on the issues we raise.

This explains the 'Debate Ammunition' series we now hope to supply, and additional information, such as the 'Views On' series, to empower people to engage in discussion at a time when we think this is going to be critical. At the same time, we want to reach as many different audiences as we can using this blog, YouTube and Substack, all of which appear to have slightly different audience reach, with some obvious overlaps.

So, what is the net outcome of that?

The first is that anyone who now engages with our content might expect to get the following each year:

• 75 hours of YouTube content
• A Debate Ammunition download to support many of those videos, if not all of them
• Around 1,200 posts a year on this blog
• Another 400 or more posts a year on Substack
• At least 50 Views On articles a year, and maybe more
• At least two e-books a year
• Regular podcasts, which will now probably be coming out through our Substack channel, starting soon.

And we are looking at ways to do Q and A sessions if live events do not prove to be possible at present.

For a team of three full-time people, ably assisted by Jacqueline, and, we hope fairly soon, some bookkeeping support, because it is time for me to give up a lot of the admin I have been doing, that is a pretty big output.

What we're looking for

What are we hoping for in exchange? I hope for three things.

The first is engagement.

The second is positive feedback, along with constructive criticism when appropriate.

The third, and I will be honest about this, is financial support.

Financial support

We know that many people will not be able to make donations to support this channel's work, and that a regular commitment will be beyond them. I accept that fact and want to make the material available to anyone despite it.

But what we know is that, on an average day, this blog usually gets more than 20,000 readers, with an upward trend again at present, and around 70,000 YouTube viewers, with that figure being a little more variable depending upon the day's content.

At the moment, this level of traffic produces less than £30,000 of donations, on average, each year, with most of those being one-off payments. Recurring payments, on which we can rely, are only a little over £1,000 a month, and our research shows that this is a very low level of support. The average Substack channel with traffic levels like ours usually has between 5 and 7% of readers who regularly contribute financially. The rate on YouTube is lower, at between 1 to 2%. We have nothing like that support. 

Put all this together and allow for the fact that we have a fast-growing number of subscribers on Substack, many of whom appear to be entirely different to those who are viewing this blog, and it is not unreasonable to think that we might expect, if our pattern of support followed that for other channels, to have at least 2,000 regular subscribers a month to this channel, paying £3 each, although with the option of paying more if they wanted.

I also know that this figure per month is low, as many channels ask for much more, but we have deliberately chosen not to provide any specific benefits in exchange for a donation. That is because of the issues around putting material behind a paywall that I noted above. Even so, this level of support would generate sufficient income to meet most of the basic costs of this channel, allow for a downturn in YouTube traffic, and let us undertake some of the investment that we now require in the automation of some workflows and in the redesign of this blog, which really does now need it.

So, I have an appeal to make. If you are able, might you consider making a regular donation to support our work so we can continue it in the coming year or more? If you can, our Kofi channel is here, and if you would rather make a direct donation, please email me at richard.murphy[at]taxresearch.org.uk

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