Curbside Classic is a fascinating case study of the difficulties of sustaining a financially viable independent media outlet. For example, last year Niedermeyer announced that ad revenue was down 15-20 percent because of increased use of ad-blocking software.
“I’ve long given up on CC becoming a viable business proposition able to support me full-time or pay our top writers,” Niedermeyer (2016) wrote, “but it is a bit painful to see our ad revenue continue to shrink.”
This led Niedermeyer to request donations, but he has only done so on an ad-hoc basis. That may turn out to be a strategic miscalculation. With too many publishers chasing too few advertising dollars (Thompson, 2017), media outlets such as Talking Points Memo are stabilizing their finances by developing a subscriber base (Owen, 2017).
I suspect that Curbside Classic could benefit by adopting a business model at least somewhat similar to TPM’s, which continues to offer a significant portion of its website’s content free while enticing subscribers with premium features.
Curbside Classic put up for sale in 2013
This is not the first time that readers wondered about the future of Curbside Classic. A few years earlier Niedermeyer (2013) announced that he was selling the website, partly because it was taking too much of his time. A suitable buyer was not found so he hired a managing editor (2014a) who was ultimately let go due to inadequate revenue (2014b).
Since then Niedermeyer has continued to publish the website, although he appears to have increasingly relied upon an army of volunteers to produce content. Every once in a while he has also mentioned feeling burned out. As a case in point, two years ago he wrote:
“if it weren’t for the fact that I’m not dependent on its income, (Curbside Classic) would likely have shut down long ago. It’s a full-time job, and more, with highly incommensurate compensation (roughly minimum wage). And that’s only now; the first few years there was almost no income at all. And that’s only when I’m not paying others to help out, which I do to get a bit of relief. Which is a big part of the problem: there’s not enough income to hire anyone on an ongoing basis, since no one else that’s properly qualified is going to be able to do the job for minimum wage, at least not for any length of time. Ideally, there would be at least one full time Managing Editor along with me to keep up with all of the submissions, housekeeping, and creating content. But it’s just not economically possible. And I’m always fighting burnout, given that I have to also keep my other business activities going, although they’ve been neglected.” (Niedermeyer, 2015)
Part of the challenge of a largely solo operation is that one person isn’t likely to possess the time, skills and interest in all of the different tasks that need doing. For example, Curbside Classic was part of a new wave of entirely electronic automotive media, but its use of technology has now become fairly old school. As far as I can tell Curbside Classic doesn’t have a social media presence, nor does the website include buttons that allow you to easily share an article on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. Taking those steps could potentially boost readership — and thus advertising revenue.
What’s lost when all-web media go offline
If Curbside Classic ever went off line, that would be a double hit to the automotive history field. Gone would be an invaluable discussion forum. (In theory you could access content through the Wayback Machine Internet archives, but in my experience it isn’t comprehensive and reader friendly.) However, equally important would be the loss of a vast repository of information. You can’t just buy the book and keep it on a shelf. This is the biggest disadvantage of an all-electronic media outlet.
That brings up a brainstorm: Perhaps Curbside Classic could publish mini-anthologies of selected articles and comments. E-books would be a low-cost way to do so — and could potentially offer presentation advantages over the printed Collectible Automobile magazine. These could be sold as stand-alone products or offered as a premium feature for subscribers.
Of course, Niedermeyer may prefer to stay the course until he eventually decides to retire. After all, making meaningful changes can be daunting when the day-to-day operations are so time consuming.
I hope that Curbside Classic manages to stick around for many years. That it has lasted this long is a testament to Niedermeyer’s passion, persistence and talent.
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RE:SOURCES
- Niedermeyer, Paul; 2013. “Curbside Classic For Sale — The Website, That Is.” Curbside Classic. Posted November 26; accessed December 10, 2017.
- ——; 2014a. “Welcome CC’s First Managing Editor: Perry Shoar.” Curbside Classic. Posted January 14; accessed December 10, 2017.
- ——; 2014b. “Thank You Perry! (And A Note About Submissions).” Curbside Classic. Posted October 15; accessed December 10, 2017.
- ——; 2015. “Thank You For Not AdBlocking CC’s Ads – It’s One Critical Way To Help Keep CC Going.” Curbside Classic. Posted September 26; accessed December 10, 2017.
- ——; 2016. “Thank You To All Of You CC Donors — And To Those Of You Not Adblocking CC.” Curbside Classic. Posted November 8; accessed November 8.
- Owen, Laura Hazard; 2017. “Talking Points Memo doubled its subscribers in a year — now it’s trying to find new extras for them.” Nieman Lab. Posted June 29; accessed December 10.
- Thompson, Derek; 2017. “How to Survive the Media Apocalypse.” The Atlantic. Posted November 29; accessed December 10.
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