This project turned 12 weeks on June 13, which means I’m officially describing it in “months” versus “weeks.”

That’s a crazy milestone by itself. But what’s even more astounding to me is that BirdDog already hit the readership, engagement and audience-reach milestones I had tentatively targeted for September.

I couldn’t be more excited about that. 

There are some intriguing pieces, and collaborations, in the queue — including one about what this primary and general election forecast for the state’s political culture.

Those take time — as does thinking through how to scale BirdDog and decide on an underlying business model.  If there was an obvious strategy for journalism then this experiment, and many more around the country, wouldn’t be happening.

Based on the time spent and resulting growth over the last three months, I think there could, perhaps, be a future for it.

Now it’s really time for biz development.

I’m evaluating a variety of structures, models and events — and frankly, that’s the fun part right now. If you want to talk about how to work with or partner on an event or just hear more about what this is and why — don’t hesitate to be in touch. A lot of my time these days is spent talking with people about their interest in and potential support for something like this.

Phase II will see the email strategy migrate to one email on Sunday with a link to original pieces as well as “The Weekender” — which you all have really taken to. If there’s something earth shattering I want to get to you faster, I’ll send an extra email. Posts will continue to go up on the website a couple of times during the week so keep checking Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or www.readbirddog.com.

I didn’t know what to expect when I clicked send on the first email on March 21. It’s exceeded all my expectations so welcome to the next part of the journey.

Keep reading!

Holly | contact@readbirddog.com

•

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash