The FTTE report is now a paid subscription publication

FTTE logoToday the September Future Trends in Technology and Education report will appear.

I have a major announcement about that.  This is the last free issue. From now on FTTE will only be available by paid subscription.

If you would like to subscribe, there are now two options.

  1. You can sign up through the FTTE site.  The cost is $5 US per month (which is a pretty good deal, the price of 1 or 2 cups of coffee).
  2. Alternatively, you can support the work through Patreon by joining the “On the living wall of credits” tier for $10 per month.   That gets you the FTTE report each month, plus the addition of your name to that credit wall (a big graphic listing supporters) which will then appear in all future FTTE reports, my face to face presentations, on this blog, and in Future Trends Forum session.  Supporters on this tier also get access to early and sometimes exclusive looks at my content, including video.

Whichever method you choose, new FTTE reports will arrive in your email inbox every month.

So why the transition from free or pay-as-you-like to paid access?

I want to be very open here, as I have been about my work for years.  I also want to be clear and direct.

The first reason for the change is the report’s content.  FTTE reports have gradually grown into rich publications.  How rich?  A quick glance through some of the past year and a half’s run shows each report running 18, 15, 17, 18, 15, 19, 15, 14, or 20 pages. Word count per issue ranges around 3054, 3637, 2987, 3361, 3747, 3754, 3040, 4170 words.  The number of end notes per issue?  83, 72, 63, 59, 66, 86, 66, 57, 90 (and please know that these aren’t just links by themselves, but carefully and regularly formatted bibliographic references).  The pdfs range in size from 1 to 4 megs each, thanks in part to the inclusion of many graphics.  September’s issue has 23 pages, 4589 words, 89 footnotes, and 6.3 meg in .doc format (2.3, squished down into .pfd).  These aren’t quick blog posts or link dumps, but substantial research publications.

FTTE chart, Campus Technology edit

The trends we follow.

Put another way, I think this content is worth something.

The second reason for the transition?  Time.

Producing FTTE is now a serious part-time job.  The end-of-month production process takes about 12-14 hours (prosing out each point carefully, double-checking cites, identifying which trends did and did not get support that time, building the ToC, rearranging the issue’s flow to be more sensible, editing graphics, changing page layout for legibility and to avoid big white spaces, proofing several times, pdf creation, Mailchimp wrangling…).  Meanwhile, I conduct at least 1-2 hours of research every single day (yes, weekends too) throughout each month, hunting accounts of trends that I assess and sometimes include into the current report.  I send some of those out through social media or direct content with experts for fact- and reality-checking.  Roughly that amounts to about 10 hours per week, on average.

That’s time I can’t spend on other work, a/k/a opportunity cost.  It’s hours I can’t spend making other stuff: writing books, making videos, or cudgeling the podcast towards its long-delayed appearance.  FTTE now represents a class I can’t teach or a client I can’t support.  It’s time that I’m not spending on paid work – and please remember that BAC is a standalone small business, independent of any institutional backing.  Every single hour counts for sustainability.

Recall, too, that I will turn 52 in several months.  I currently work 60-70 hour weeks.  Biology is increasingly likely to put in scheduling requests that my professional passion and work ethic won’t be able to refuse.

Now, there are steps I could take to save time in FTTE production, but none are viable.  For example, I could simply cut down the amount of content, producing lighter issues.  FTTE lite? This just galls me professionally.  I could hire staff to conduct some of the work, but a) it’s actually hard to outsource most of this, b) it would add to my business costs, and c) it would add some extra time for organization, management, and logistics.  I could just shut down the thing entirely, but I don’t want to do that.

Another option would be to return to FTTE’s original purpose.  You see, it first appeared in 2012 when I was working for the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE).  I created FTTE as a benefit to paying members (in 2013 I carried it over to my own enterprise).  So we could imagine some new membership framework within which the report would be a benefit, but to put it mildly the startup effort there is of an order of magnitude greater than simply transitioning to subscription.

Tag cloud from the early days of FTTE.

In short, I’m committed to producing a rich, high quality publication that I don’t want to shortchange.  Shifting it to a paid subscription model is the best way forward.  It is the only way I can see to make the thing sustainable.

Meanwhile, none of the other Future of Education Observatory offerings are changing at this time.  This blog, the Future Trends Forum, the book club, the book store, all my other social media outputs (Twitter, G+, LinkedIn, Facebook) remain open and free.  That’s a lot of free content.  FTTE is the only Observatory project that is moving behind a paywall.

I expect that this transition will likely cut down the number of FTTE subscribers from the current population of 2,029.  I know some of you won’t be able to afford this, and I’m truly sorry; please contact me if you would like to talk.  I suspect many have enjoyed the price point to date, and will be unhappy with the increase.  It’s hard to change from free to paid. I get that.

This change may also elicit public criticism.  Some may object to what they see as a decision motivated solely by commercial logic or greed.  Others may deem this move a betrayal of openness, and a hypocritical move to boot, given my passionate and public support for open.  I understand all of that and am sympathetic to the last point.

On the other hand, perhaps the openness of this decision and the quality of FTTE will inspire support.  Maybe old and new subscribers will decide that it’s worth supporting this work.  Perhaps new sponsors will step forward. I sincerely hope so.  Some people might celebrate the idea of supporting a creator making stuff, rather than paying for a platform. Some may chime in to agree with Bruce Sterling’s line (somewhere; still can’t find the source) that information doesn’t want to be free – it wants to be paid.

To sum up: from here on out FTTE is available only to paying subscribers and supporters.  If you’d like to join, you can sign up through the FTTE site for the basic subscription. Alternatively, you can support the work through Patreon by joining the “On the living wall of credits” tier.  We will welcome each and every one of you.

My thanks go to all the many, many people who have supported FTTE over the past six years with your comments, ideas, suggestions, constructive criticism, graphic design input, editorial assistance, and general support.  My thanks as well to my Patreon supporters, many of whom worked closely with me on this decision making process.  And more thanks still to my wife and business partner, Ceredwyn; hopefully we’ll hear from her soon.

As ever, please share your thoughts in the comments box.

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16 Responses to The FTTE report is now a paid subscription publication

  1. Roger Schonfeld says:

    Bryan,
    Congratulations on this important step and I hope it is a great success. Will there be an institutional subscription model? Or just individual?
    Roger

    • Bryan Alexander says:

      Thank you, Roger.
      Right now it’s just individuals. Any thoughts about setting up institutional subscriptions? Perhaps I should publish an FTTE report through a third party platform for that, like Amazon.

      • Roger Schonfeld says:

        Not sure – I don’t mean to complicate things for you, just thinking that it would be not be that hard to convince my organization of the value of a subscription. 🙂

        • Jessica Egan says:

          Ha! That was my first question and I’m glad to see others were thinking the same. What if you did something like $5/month for single subscriber but $25/month for an institutional? (shooting in the dark with these numbers) I have a very small team (5 people), so I’m not sure how that would work with larger institutions that would want, say, 50+ people subscribed. I definitely think it’s worth tossing a few ideas out there!

          • Bryan Alexander says:

            Jessica, many thanks for this comment.
            I’m sorry I didn’t reply more quickly. It took some sustained research and getting a lot of feedback.
            Here are the answers:

            Individuals can now sign up for $60/year, billed annually.

            Institutions can subscribe for $600/year.
            (We considered tiered pricing by FTE and organizational type, but the consensus was that this was too complex all around)

            Would one of those structures address your interests?

  2. Valerie Bock says:

    I’m glad you are charging for this service. Honestly, I see it going one of two ways, either useful. Either enough people will pony up for a publication they value to make it worth your while to put it together, or they won’t, and you can free up the time you have been spending on this project for endeavors which generate more value for your audience and yourself.

  3. Bryan – You need very little defense to justify making this decision. It is (will be) worth every cent — more so I would say than some other more expensive memberships I have paid for over the years. Professionals should be compensated for their work. Nuff said.

    People got PO’d when Motor Trend’s “Roadkill” show went off of YouTube and out to a paid model. But as much as I love Roadkill (Stubby Bob Lives!!), my subscription dollar will be much better spent on FTTE.

    Include me in. There should be t-shirts or false beards or bowling gloves, or some other swag I can get too.

  4. Bill Benzon says:

    Opportunity cost is very important, and little appreciated. Of course, charge for your work.

  5. Mark Ulett says:

    The False Beard idea is gold. Like The Boring Company’s Not a Flamethrower. 🙂

    Agree with all previous comments. There is no justification needed because you’re still delivering value FAR BEYOND the dollar cost. As a faithful reader of FTTE, I’m happy to pay. I also like the idea because it aligns financial incentives with the work being done and FTTE will more likely live on and grow as the audience does. (That’s one way to pay for an intern/”trend jockey” to ease the burden of production)

    Re: institutional subscription. I like the idea, but mixing B2C and B2B sales can be tough. Potentially worth it, but probably only if you have repeated requests for that model. On the B2C side, FTTE gives education professionals a competitive advantage over their less-future-focused colleagues. Promotions and raises stemming from that competitive edge have a real monetary value, some of which should be directed to the people who created the materials that made it possible (that’s you, Bryan).

    Besides, what’s the alternative? Keep it free and fill it with advertising and then sell the data about who reads FTTE to EdTech companies wanting to know who they should approach in the organization? No thanks. I’d prefer if FTTE was the product and not me. Here’s $10.

    • Bryan Alexander says:

      Hm, we could offer a flamethrower…

      Thank you for your thoughts and support, Mark. Institutional requests are trickling in.

  6. David Soliday says:

    I agree with the move and comments above, and I am willing to support FTTE. I also cringe at the typical advertising business model. I would only ask that you include other options of payment, such as annually.

    Keep up the good work!

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