An update on the state of The Kākā nation

Including final details on improving The Kākā and widening its reach with new offers for students, under 30s and others; Plus a massive thanks to subscribers for your support and ideas

TLDR: I began working (almost) full-time on The Kākā from this week and aim to further grow its audience and supporter base by making more of my deeper-dive articles available to the non-paying public, thanks to the support of paying subscribers. I asked paying subscribers about these plans last month in this ‘State of The Kākā Nation post and was encouraged and humbled by the supportive comments, advice and happily-received unpaid consulting.

I now have a clearer idea of what I can usefully focus on and deliver for both paying and non-paying subscribers in a way that is sustainable for me and builds a platform for growth in the future.

Photo: Getty Images

In summary, I plan to:

• deliver the most essential morning news briefings for paying subscribers who need to know what’s news for their working lives in politics, policy, governance, the economy, business, finance, investing, education and markets;

• do regular in-depth reports, interviews, analyses and explainers for everyone on Aotearoa-NZ’s housing, climate and poverty problems and solutions;

• ask questions of and report on what politicians, public servants and executives say and do about housing, climate and poverty, and make those exchanges public;

• foster and develop a community of paying supporters who can debate these issues and provide new ideas, challenges and potential solutions for me and others to cover; and,

• suggest, debate and test potential solutions to our housing, climate and poverty problems for the public, the wider media, politicians and advocates of all views, shapes and sizes to see.

I plan to make The Kākā more widely available to more people, including those who would normally not be able to afford it and should have it for the sake of generations to come. I appreciate paid subscribers have said they are happy to support me doing the work and then spreading it as widely as possible. They said that was part of the deal. They just wanted the work done, and weren’t so hung up on cordoning it off to only those who paid.

From tomorrow morning, I’ll do this by:

• publishing a comprehensive Dawn Chorus news wrap and podcast every weekday morning that includes the essence of what happened in geo-politics, economics, markets and business overnight globally, and what is coming up in Aotearoa-NZ later that day;

• only sending these Chorus emails and podcasts to paid subscribers;

• publishing regular deeper-dive pieces more often on our housing, climate and poverty problems and solutions for both free and paid subscribers at the same time, but they will only able to be commented on by paid subscribers;

• inviting paid subscribers to participate in weekly ‘Ask Me Anything’ threads at midday on Fridays, along with inviting paid subscribers to our weekly ‘hoon’ webinar discussions from 4pm to 5pm on Fridays;

• and regularly asking paid subscribers for fresh topics, lines of inquiry and tips through the Choruses, AMAs and ‘hoons’.

It also means I’ll be opening up the full ‘paid’ membership tier to a lot of people who I think should have access to the full Choruses, deep-dives and community discussion, but can’t afford to pay the full price, or pay at all. Some also aren’t allowed to pay by their employers. That includes teachers, students and those under 30, along with advocacy groups and political parties of all types.

So, from tomorrow, these offers will be open from the links below and I encourage all those eligible to take them up, and all those who are already subscribers to spread them around to family, friends and colleagues.

Here’s how we can spread journalism more widely

So, from the moment this is published:

• anyone under 30 can subscribe as a fully paid subscriber for $3/month or $30/year through this ‘$30 for under 30s’ offer link for a year, with the knowledge I’d be able to find out if a subscriber is over 30 and taking the proverbial within a couple of quick searches;

• anyone with a .ac.nz email address can subscribe to the free tier of subscription and we will convert that email address to the full paid tier as a complementary lifetime subscriber for no cost;

• anyone who works for a media organisation, large or small, can sign up for the free tier and we will convert that email address to the full paid tier as a complementary lifetime subscriber for no cost;

• anyone who works for an advocacy group focused on housing and/or climate and/or poverty can sign up for the free tier and we will convert that email address to the full paid tier as a complementary lifetime subscriber for no cost;

• anyone who works for a registered political party can sign up for the free tier and we will convert that email address to the full paid tier as a complementary lifetime subscriber for no cost;

• we’ll ensure existing fully paid subscribers can refer their friends to subscribe with a 50% discount for the first year, through this ‘Friend get Friend’ link, which can be copied and pasted and sent to friends

• we’ll ensure any large organisation that signs up to a simple $1,900 per year groupi subscription will get unlimited access to anyone within that organisation who uses their work email suffix to sign up, with no limit on numbers to that suffix.

If you’re in one of these education, advocacy, media or political organisations and you’re already signed up as a fully paid subscriber, we will convert you to a lifetime subscriber from the end of your existing subscription (end of month or end of year). We thank you for your initial subscription. You got us up on our feet. If you need a partial refund, please email me directly and I can arrange the payment. It’s not possible through the existing Stripe system.

If you’re under 30 and have paid in full already, you’re welcome to sign up to the ‘$30 for under 30s’ deal once your existing subscription expires. We’d love you to subscribe in full if are under 30 and you can. If you do sign up for the $30 for under 30s deal, you’ll need to sign up to the special offer once a year as it expires after a year. If you turn 30 while subscribed to the deal, I’m happy for you to subscribe in full once your subscription expires.

Let’s pay it forward

I think it’s important those who’ll inherit the policies I report on and analyse get to read about it in full, particularly because they are the ones with the least assets and incomes.

If you’re not in one of those groups above and you’d like to subscribe in full but simply can’t afford it, then please either sign up for the $30 for under 30s deal or email me and I can see what I can do.

It’s an honesty system. I trust you all, although there is the vague hope that I bump into you in the street or at an event and I marvel at your agelessness and style as a Maserati-owning subscriber. It is Aotearoa-NZ after all.

What changed between the draft plan and the final plan?

I got a lot of feedback that people wanted quality rather than quantity. The experimental Dusk Chorus that went out after 5pm was popular and was opened at very high rates, but there was a cost in terms of my time and focus. I’ve decided not to continue with those, aware of the drawbacks of another regular commitment that might get in the way of bigger and deeper pieces.

I really enjoy being able to do the interviews and deep dives that allow me to write stand-alone pieces. They often generate the most views, impacts and subscriptions. The collective feedback was people preferred to the deep dives to another chorus, although there was a lot of love for the Dawn Chorus. I can focus now on making that comprehensive and timely.

I’ve also steered away from making too many hard comitments around deadlines or subscriber growth numbers, or what might happen if we achieve those goals. Its taken me 30 years of learning to realise I can cut myself a bit of slack on growth and sometimes take some time to read a book or just have a slightly longer holiday.

It will become clear as the numbers and resources grow how we do more journalism in a way that’s sustainable for myself and Lynn. I’ve made the mistake before of committing to growth before the revenues were bedded in and won’t do that again. We’ll be in a position to do more once subscriber numbers are decisively over 2,500 and bedded in with low churn rates.

I also had a bit of a health scare over the long weekend that reminded me that although The Kākā is now my (almost) full time job, I shouldn’t let it consume the rest of my waking life. I’m keen to be doing this in many, many years time. I’m in this for both a good time and a long time.