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South Side Sox needs your help

We’re pushing toward 60% of the support necessary to keep us running full tilt

By Brett Ballantini
S.O.S.S.S.: Save our South Side Sox!

So, rather than keeping these types of posts locked in permanently, to the point where it becomes easy to ignore (or be irritated by), I’ll issue weekly or bi-weekly updates and just let them flow down through the storystream on the front page.

It’s been more than a week since the last update — you may have noticed there’s been a little bit of off-the-field news — but since last check-in, we’ve gotten a decent boost.

South Side Sox needs your help

I’m Brett Ballantini, and I’ve been a sportswriter focused on our Chicago teams (White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks) for two decades now. Since 2005, in part or full, I’ve made my living writing about the White Sox.

As the managing editor of South Side Sox, I have a staff of a dozen writers. Our site provides the most comprehensive coverage of the White Sox on the web, from the affiliates to the major league team, with lots of analysis, reader polling and team history mixed in.

We also boast the biggest and most vibrant community of White Sox fans you’ll find anywhere. It’s the backbone of our site.

Another thing South Side Sox does that no other blog will is so simple, you may forget how rare it is in online media: Pay its staff. Every single regular contributor is valued, and thus paid for their work.

With the team at low ebb, support from our ownership has been halved, which leaves me with two choices: reduce coverage, or ask for help. Rather than just accepting the former, I’m going to try the latter.

During the period in which we’ll need help (failing to sign Manny Machado triggered this change, so three cheers for opt-outs!), nothing about the site will change, including its ads.

With enough support, we’ll continue to expand the site, including a podcast and several other large ideas I’ve teased on the site in the past. First and foremost, we need to surmount our budget crisis, which is where you can help.

Funding tiers are thus pretty basic right now, as this wasn’t something I ever thought I’d have to do.

But it’s been done before on our pages, and this time you can rest assured that all monies will be plugged right back into the site and its writers to continue to provide you first-stop White Sox coverage.

Thanks for your willingness to help. I hope we continue to prove worthy of your support.

We’re now at 58% of our original budget level. Still, we could use your continued or additional support to continue trying to operate the site at full strength.

While I inadvertently deleted my original pledge push post, some of the original text appears in original form here, and is reproduced as a sidebar in this post.

So, anyway, here we are. Although we’ve made it past halfway to our desired goal when setting up outside support for our site after our budget was cut in half, it would be nice to get a second wind of support as well.

We have been given enough initial support to only affect a portion of staff here, the so-called heavy hitters. Year of the Hamster’s Deputy Editor position was eliminated, representing about a third of the cut. Darren Jackson’s lead voice position was eliminated, about a fifth. My own pay was slashed about 40%. Those three cuts pretty much accounted for everything that’s lost, and unfortunately, for the people who turn the lights on every morning, it’s a bummer.

But looking ahead, hopefully there’s momentum to get us pretty quickly back to where we were and perhaps beyond, so we can add additional coverage and features.

As of now, nothing will change about the site. (And it certainly isn’t in danger of materially going away.) Technically, we’re required to post very minimally due to the cuts — SBN is not demanding the same or more work for half-pay — but as I’d said before, I’m fighting back. We’re still going to provide everything you’re accustomed to here over the past year: gamethreads, recaps, minor league updates (more detailed than you’ll find anywhere), unique photos, previews, and features.

We’ve got the groovy new Breaking T partnership going with the Tim Anderson tribute T-shirt STICK TALK, as well as the Eloy Jiménez masterpiece PINWHEEL POWER, which is a great way for you to support the site, as we get a little tip for you clicking the link and buying, and you get some groovy gear in return. We’ve also put together a post with random, cool White Sox items, where any purchases made will similarly help South Side Sox.

We’re moving forward with a couple of additional ideas as well, store items that ideally will give us an even bigger chunk of the action.

Interest is so far low in a weekly Q&A fueled by supporter questions, so we’ll see where that goes. However, the Slack editorial board is up and running. here, with questions provided by site supporters.

Eventually, this article, running weekly or bi-weekly, will settle in at a sort of monthly status check-in thing — but that’s only once we’re back to our original budget. There’s still a sense of urgency for South Side Sox to run the way you’ve become accustomed over the past year-plus.

Please, think about what you can do to aid South Side Sox. I appreciate your consideration.

Thank you for your support!

Jay Berglind ⚾️ Brian Pollina

Richard L Horner ⚾️ Josh Pollock

Jeffrey Hunt

Jake A. ⚾️ Michael Collins ⚾️ Stephen T Giles ⚾️ John Ibeling ⚾️ katiesphil ⚾️ Sam Kleinman ⚾️ Douglas Lauffenberger ⚾️ Darryl Levine ⚾️ mack411 ⚾️ Seth Marburger ⚾️ Michael P Phelan ⚾️ Harlan Proehl ⚾️ Kirollos Stadion ⚾️ Steve Vejcik ⚾️ Year of the Hamster

Giovanni Benincasa ⚾️ bevingtonsTallBoy ⚾️ Christopher Biller ⚾️ Thomas Bishop ⚾️ Zach Burke ⚾️ David C ⚾️ John Dowling ⚾️ John Felker ⚾️ indianbadger ⚾️ Kevin Kelly ⚾️ LetsgoWhiteSox ⚾️ Lurker Laura ⚾️ Phillip McKay ⚾️ Chris McVady ⚾️ Barack Obama ⚾️ Sean O’Connell ⚾️ pointerbabe ⚾️ Mike Poplawski ⚾️ Francisco Quinteros ⚾️ Richard Ramey ⚾️ Joseph Rousseau ⚾️ Steven Singer ⚾️ David Smith ⚾️ Phillip Smolinski ⚾️ soxfanpa ⚾️ Kevin L. Staten

Charlie ⚾️ Chef Eric ⚾️ Dale Cole ⚾️ Lindle Dailey ⚾️ FancyHughYancy ⚾️ Jerry Hilgenberg ⚾️ Rick Hultgen ⚾️ Tyson Lagoni ⚾️ Matthew Masini ⚾️ Michael ⚾️ Jose Morales ⚾️ John O ⚾️ Richard Schroeder ⚾️ Cathy Tokarski ⚾️ Doug Weerts

Lloyd Cheng ⚾️ Steven J. Colen ⚾️ Phillip Davis ⚾️ Jason Dollens ⚾️ Phil Erwin ⚾️ Dan Freveletti ⚾️ Steve Gantz ⚾️ John Glynn ⚾️ john hayden ⚾️ Roger Hill ⚾️ Michael Jozwik ⚾️ LBSoxfan ⚾️ James Lewandowski ⚾️ Theodore G McKenzie ⚾️ Jeff Nelson ⚾️ Sox Side Platehead ⚾️ Howard Lewis Tanzman ⚾️ Cerpin Taxt

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