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Crossroads at THP Media

GolferGal

GolferGal

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There comes a point in any business where some very serious decisions need to be made. One of the biggest decisions we have made recently was me becoming full time with THP Media. It was a huge leap but we felt it was truly the next step in growing this company, the brand of THP Media to a whole new level.

Many here have voiced their confidence in us that we are on to something and that we can really make a difference in the golf industry. Ever since the PGA Show we are starting to see that as well. We have been inundated with requests from companies for different ideas and projects they want to undertake. While we are incredibly excited about this growth and recognition it does come at a cost both financially and morally. We are sort of at a crossroads right now and we want to know how our valued members feel.

What would you do? Would you keep things the way they are and halt expansion due to a lack of means? Do you change the rules a little to allow for a whole new world of opportunities that will be beneficial to everyone but at the same time changes the business model? We want to know your thoughts because THP Media is not just about the staff but about the amazing members, readers, and now listeners who support us day in and day out.

We sincerely appreciate your honest feedback.
 
I love THP and all that it stands for, and I can only hope it can grow into something bigger, better and stronger. The only thing I would be worried about is it getting too big. The personalities of the forum could get lost if it gets too big. But as long as it stays impartial to all brands (unlike the Golf Digest), I wouldn't limit growth.
 
GolferGal22 said:
There comes a point in any business where some very serious decisions need to be made. One of the biggest decisions we have made recently was me becoming full time with THP Media. It was a huge leap but we felt it was truly the next step in growing this company, the brand of THP Media to a whole new level.

Many here have voiced their confidence in us that we are on to something and that we can really make a difference in the golf industry. Ever since the PGA Show we are starting to see that as well. We have been inundated with requests from companies for different ideas and projects they want to undertake. While we are incredibly excited about this growth and recognition it does come at a cost both financially and morally. We are sort of at a crossroads right now and we want to know how our valued members feel.

What would you do? Would you keep things the way they are and halt expansion due to a lack of means? Do you change the rules a little to allow for a whole new world of opportunities that will be beneficial to everyone but at the same time changes the business model? We want to know your thoughts because THP Media is not just about the staff but about the amazing members, readers, and now listeners who support us day in and day out.

We sincerely appreciate your honest feedback.
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I would vote for this if it's doable. All in all, you and JB need to make sure that you as a couple come first regardless of how much you love THP and its members. You guys as a couple came first and everything else follows (good and bad). No matter what you guys decide, I'm sure many in the Paradise will support your decision. That being said, if you think that extra staff (voluntary or 'paid) is needed that may be the route to go so it doesn't put everything on your shoulders.
 
Whatever you do, don't spread yourselves too thin. It's better that you do everything you do, well. Not try to do everything and not be able to give it all 100%.
 
Well, I'm not sure exactly what you are referring to as far as changes go, but I may have an idea.

I like what you have currently, but I see the opportunity for you to grow and provide a much more expansive service to the golfing community. You can grow in size and financially and still keep the integrity that is so important to us and you. I don't think it is reasonable for anybody to expect that you and JB run this site as a social organization. It is certainly commendable, but in the end I don't think you should be spending your money and time without some sort of return.

I don't avoid other sites because they are commercial enterprises. I avoid them because I sense cynicism, favoritism and repetition. This site has a fresh, friendly feel. That's what brings me back every day. You can keep your identity while growing. You and JB created a vision that you can work towards every day, regardless of the size or business model.
 
thanks1974 said:
I would vote for this if it's doable. All in all, you and JB need to make sure that you as a couple come first regardless of how much you love THP and its members. You guys as a couple came first and everything else follows (good and bad). No matter what you guys decide, I'm sure many in the Paradise will support your decision. That being said, if you think that extra staff (voluntary or 'paid) is needed that may be the route to go so it doesn't put everything on your shoulders.
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Well said Thanks.

Above everything else, you (JB and GG) as a couple come first. Take care of each other, look out for each other, and support each other, and you'll be fine.

If you need additional staff, weigh the costs against the benefits and how long you think it will take to recoup those costs. If you need to start advertising, you already have the perfect vehicle for that in THP the magazine. Looks you're on track for success!
 
I support any necessary changes to keep the quality of the site what it is.
 
I kind of feel the need to let some of the older, longer term, members voice their concerns before me, however I will say that I fully expected a time to come when all the best intentions in the world just would not keep up with the utility bill. You have created something very special here and I for one want to see it continue, however on a very biased stand, I love the forum side and know you have a much broader vision.

This is your creation from your vision, I just hang out and pester. The best of both worlds would be to generate income without bias? Not sure how thats possible, but if anyone can do it, the two of you have all the credentials.

By the way, if any of the inagural issues are left I'd still like a signed one, lol. You two are fast becoming long term movers and shakers in golf.

I stand behind what ever decision you make.
 
Let me start off by saying that THP was a child born from myself, and a few others here. I had these grand plans in my head and a couple of people were here to take the craziness that is up there most of the time and make it real. Mr. Longshanks and Mr. Mac were the two that put up with my ideas and grand plans. My wife is really the force behind the creative side of things of THP Media, Inc overall. She is the one that deals with the companies day to day and she is the one that makes sure that this place from a business perspective continues. But THP Media cannot continue at its current pace of growth.

What some do not realize is that we have spent a ridiculous sum of money to get where we are between the magazine, the travels, and more. We believe that we are on to something pretty special here and that will never change, but at the current rate of growth (not the forum mind you, but the biz as a whole) we simply cannot sustain it with our monies anymore.

As mentioned by GG, we have been approached A LOT recently about new and exciting ideas that could bring some amazing things to THP in the form of tour coverage, early product releases, more contests, and so much more. Not by a single company mind you, but by the industry as a whole and at some point have to decide where we are headed with this company.

One of the original ideas behind THP Media was to bridge the gap between industry and golfer in a way that was fun and at the same time informative. In a way that the consumers could have a voice and that the industry wants to hear it. The forum is fun and we love being able to share everything with the members here (heck we shared our wedding with you guys first), but there comes a point in time where we want to go back to the original goal and intent and do something positive.

We are looking for input on how we can implement that. We have had sleepless nights over the last week or so as we move towards another magazine coming out in the spring, some new designs, and the launch of THP Radio (more on that soon). We also have some great ideas coming in as mentioned that we want to implement and are just unsure how to go about it without spending thousands of more dollars.

I am sure at this point I am rambling and you will probably hear a lot more of my rambling very soon in this thread...For that I apologize ahead of time.
 
To elaborate on JB's post I want to emphasize that a large part of this decision making is so that we can do more for our forum members. We want to keep the golf site for every golfer no matter your skill level or location. We want to give back to you all more but in order to do that we may need to do things that go against our original business model. This is not about us (well of course in a way it is) but really it's about you. How we can make this a better place for you. Through the website, the radio show, the magazine, and so much more. We have this great opportunities to get player interviews but that means travel and that costs $$$. There are so many things we can do for everyone and for this place.

One thing we will never ever go against is being an unbiased place. No matter what we will never ever EVER write a positive review for money I would not be able to sleep at night if that happened. It would be our promise that no matter what our reviews would still be 100% honest.
 
I realize that you're somewhat between a rock and a hard place when you consider your possibility for growth and the fact that THP has always had the stance of NOT accepting sponsorships. You see where this company can go, but in order to get there some decisions about some of the core beliefs from day 1 have to be made. I believe there is a way to tactfully accept sponsors without becoming overwhelmed by ads. Being very selective with the sponsors you choose and the ads you accept would be something that would help a lot.

Whatever JB and GG decide is best for THP is going to be great with me, I love this place and will continue to love this place in the future. No matter what we'll always have this forum as our own little sanctuary of all things golf.
 
Thats why I hate openning my mouth. In re-reading my own post it comes out totally wrong and not how I wanted to address the issues you two face. Sorry!
 
Of course I like the idea of expansion, but we (the readers) cannot expect you (the staff) to absorb the cost that the meager donations do not cover. From what I've come to understand, this place was established to give unbias reviews of all things golf while collecting $0 in advertising money for the reviews. The biggest questions is how to get all the funding for this project? Now that the magazine is set up to be a quarterly production, that can help offset some costs, but it is still not a feasible solution by its lonesome. You are giving other business plenty of exposure (small and large alike) and receiving nothing for it while they are profiting from this experience. There are plenty of companies that I have never heard of before until I found this site, but they'll be getting some of my cash because I like what they put out and the influnce I gain from reading your unbias reviews. To keep this site free of advertisements, some fee could/should be received for the review process. Whether there was a nominal fee (dependant on the item category) for each product to be reviewed or an entry fee for a shootout, some kind of cash flow should be generated.
 
I love what THP is now.

If you change/bend the rules a little now, what in the world would prevent bigger extremes later? THP is growing at a very fast rate, and i think/hope it will continue to do so. But I don't agree with changing (even in a "small" way) the rules to accompany the growth and ideas. I think it's pretty safe to say that THP is very different from most of the other commercial "golf" sites out there, and I for one love it for that.
 
Puttin4Bird said:
Whatever JB and GG decide is best for THP is going to be great with me, I love this place and will continue to love this place in the future. No matter what we'll always have this forum as our own little sanctuary of all things golf.
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+1

I'm sure you had to make some hard decisions before this and look how it turned out. Whatever you decide to do make sure to be true to yourselves and if you can sleep at night comfortably with the decisions that you make then I say it's a winner. Regardless of what anyone says here in the forum, myself included, your decision is and will always be the best decision and I'm sure that many, if not all, of the members here will stand behind it.
 
I fell like I don't have any right to say anything what with being so new here...

That said though, I love this place. Since joining it has fully captured my attention and a heckuvalot of my free time too. The fact that there is no bias is amazing and the amount of reviews you supply us with is even more amazing. I hope you guys continue to grow and have success, the sky really is the limit IMO, especially after seeing the PGA Show coverage, truly amazing. If it stays small, awesome, if not, thats awesome as well IMO!

I know I've not said alot by saying too much here but I'm here no matter what you guys do. I plan on donating very soon and as frequently as I can for the sake of the group!

JB, GG, thank you two so much for providing such a place as this!
 
I will just reiterate that I never started frequenting this site because you chose not to accept advertising dollars. I found your reviews to be thorough, honest, and combined with a very down-to-earth (e.g. human) touch. Couple that with a friendly community and I was hooked.

I would be thrilled if you have ways to bring me closer to pro golfers, manufacturers, and courses. If changing you business model is the only way you can do that, so be it. Restaurant critics may not give a restaurant a great review, but that doesn't mean that the newspaper the critic works for can't accept advertising dollars from the same restaurant. Advertisements don't have to by synonymous with pay-offs.

If your vision is to bring the average golfer closer to the industry, then you should do what it takes to realize that vision. And you should benefit from your hard work. I think your vision is great and it works! As a high handicapper, I have been exposed to more information through your site than any other source. When I can't find what I need on your site, I go elsewhere. If you can bring me those other pieces, I won’t need to go anywhere else.
 
I think there is a way to make a commercial site that is also honest. Take Top Gear for example (that's a car show in the UK for you Americans). They do incredibly well, yet they still are able to give honest reviews of the cars, often trashing the same brands that have major ad buys in thier TV show and magazine. Yet the makers still continue to give them cars to test.

How can they do it? A) because the show is great fun B) because the production values and information is top quality, equally tested and fair and C) because this has lead to huge viewership. The result is that even if they get trashed, the makers can't afford not to have an add or a presence with the audiance.

The problem with some "golf magazines" is that they have dropped almost everything critical. Everyone is a winner. You will never read that the new FW model is worse than the old one. You will never see a really bad review. This year they even took out most of the details on the clubs and the result is really more of an extended add than a review. Interesting, but in the end not really helpful. That's why people turn to forums like this, and that is what I would fear about loosing if THP is going commercial.

I can see why the companies want in- but if you let them in I think you have to be transparent about what they can expect- and that means if they fail the tests or you feel a particular model is not worth the money you will say so.

For your audiance you will need to provide assurances- maybe make the standard terms (maybe even the amounts?) public. Give each company a spot on the forum- as well as the magazine- to give feedback to potential customers so there are no stealth members. Continue to offer testing to all companies with no priorities, and publish the list of who was invited to take part. If a company does not respond or refuses let the audiance know and then, invite them again the next year or test them anyway with a demo from a shop.

It can be done and it has the potential to be a big winner. But you will have to give up some of the small town feeling. And it sure won't be any less work!

But as someone else said earlier, this is obviously a labour of love, so make sure what ever you do you still love it and you are still happy with it.
 
TwoSolitudes said:
For your audiance you will need to provide assurances- maybe make the standard terms (maybe even the amounts?) public. Give each company a spot on the forum- as well as the magazine- to give feedback to potential customers so there are no stealth members. Continue to offer testing to all companies with no priorities, and publish the list of who was invited to take part. If a company does not respond or refuses let the audiance know and then, invite them again the next year or test them anyway with a demo from a shop.
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If we were to accept ads, and we are not saying we are or that they will be from club companies, we could not post the amounts That is crazy and would not be fair to the people paying for those ads.
The rest of it is already done. We are completely transparent in our review process and that every club company is invited to be involved. In our last shoot out, we did list if they refused. We cannot list why in many cases because emails do say that confidentiality is in place.
 
I want to add something and one of the reasons that this has come up so much lately. Over the last few months not a day goes by that we do not get accused of taking money on this site. Not a single day and most of the time we shrug it off and do not care. It gets GG worked up because she does the books and knows what is at stake here, but it happens. You cannot please everybody.

But the fact is that we are taking ads in the magazine and some of the emails that I have received make some sense. Since it is all one company (THP Media, Inc) could it not be argued that we are already taking ads since they are in the magazine? The answer is yes in a way. We did not make any money on the magazine. In fact we lost quite a bit, but we knew that going in that we would for the 1st year and it was in our budget to do so. But the thought behind it was right in a technical sense. That THP Media overall has taken ads in the form of our print publication.

We have never taken a single dime from the site. No google ads, no money for reviews, nothing. Only donations and they mean a lot. But there comes a point in time where you have to ask yourself can you keep assessing new costs to the members? Country Clubs have been asking that very question for the last 24 months. New costs come up you either charge the members the money or you go public. In some ways THP is under the same cloud.
 
JB said:
I want to add something and one of the reasons that this has come up so much lately. Over the last few months not a day goes by that we do not get accused of taking money on this site. Not a single day and most of the time we shrug it off and do not care. It gets GG worked up because she does the books and knows what is at stake here, but it happens. You cannot please everybody.

But the fact is that we are taking ads in the magazine and some of the emails that I have received make some sense. Since it is all one company (THP Media, Inc) could it not be argued that we are already taking ads since they are in the magazine? The answer is yes in a way. We did not make any money on the magazine. In fact we lost quite a bit, but we knew that going in that we would for the 1st year and it was in our budget to do so. But the thought behind it was right in a technical sense. That THP Media overall has taken ads in the form of our print publication.

We have never taken a single dime from the site. No google ads, no money for reviews, nothing. Only donations and they mean a lot. But there comes a point in time where you have to ask yourself can you keep assessing new costs to the members? Country Clubs have been asking that very question for the last 24 months. New costs come up you either charge the members the money or you go public. In some ways THP is under the same cloud.
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Are you saying that your considering assessing a membership fee for THP or are you guys trying to decide on whether or not to accept advertising? I guess when this thread started I figured that the crossroad was the decision to accept ads, but this post sounds more like you're considering the fee. Why don't you tell us exactly what's on your mind? That way we can have a better picture of what we're all talking about. What are your options at this point? Or do you not really have a clear decision on the direction you're leaning toward right now?
 
Puttin4Bird said:
Are you saying that your considering assessing a membership fee for THP or are you guys trying to decide on whether or not to accept advertising? I guess when this thread started I figured that the crossroad was the decision to accept ads, but this post sounds more like you're considering the fee. Why don't you tell us exactly what's on your mind? That way we can have a better picture of what we're all talking about. What are your options at this point? Or do you not really have a clear decision on the direction you're leaning toward right now?
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There will not be a fee. Its an analogy of sorts to show where we are headed. We would love to post exactly what we are going through, but simply cannot without disclosing some companies information and that is not fair.

The simple way around that is to say that THP as it stands now cannot continue to move the way it is moving without money coming in. We can shut it down, we could go stagnant and just do what we do but on a slightly lesser scale, or we could look for alternatives. We have been approached numerous times over the last year about advertising and always have said no. Could that be where we are headed? I really do not know right now. But spending close to six figures again this year with no return will not happen again, because it cannot happen again. We are looking at all sorts of options and determining what is best for the people that make this site great.
 
JB,

I agree that you can not publish the cost of advertising dollars from the company. There are many reasons why you should not do that.

I do believe that you can accept monies and yet stay true to your original goal, which seems to be upfront and honest about all things golf. If you are transparent with your business partners (golf manufaturer's) and transparent with your consumers (us) then I don't think there should be an issue. As long as honesty and integrity are a vital part of the process, I don't see how it would become an issue.

Majority of people don't run a business to lose their personal wealth. The business may plan to lose money for a year or two but in the end everyone wants to make it profitable. You and GG have to make this profitable in the end otherwise everyone loses.

Just my 2 cents from a fairly new member.
 
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