Below you will see the communication I received from the new owners and my subsequent response. This is by no means is meant to be reflective of how others feel but simply my feelings based on my unique situation. Based on the email the only thing unique was my first name, (given lack of actual empathy in the body of the email).
I'm not posting to persuade or dissuade users from staying on here. I merely pointed out what would need to be done or what I think is necessary given the hectic nature of this site over a relatively short period of time. I don't care if you agree or disagree with me. I'm trying to provide a level of transparency both the old and new regime failed to provide. There is no value in you agreeing or disagreeing with my various sentiments, but it may help you find clarity in your own personal recent confusion.
Keep in mind my response is placed above Jim Coyle's per standard Outlook formatting. For best interpretation you may want to start at the bottom and work your way up.
EMAIL BELOW:
Thank you for reaching out.
If you would like me to re-subscribe, and would like me to be an advocate for your site I want to see full transparency going forward. As a business owner I'm not a believer in paying for anything I don't understand how that money is utilized.
Please do not take the above personally, but a matter of addressing any customer during an ownership transition. I eagerly wait your response and opportunity to convince me to stay. Best practices for me are full transparency.
Sincerely,
Drew Shepard
From: Indiana Sports Beat <indianasportsbeat@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2020 3:45 PM
To: Andrew Shepard <andrew.shepard@bcmrealty.com>
Subject: TheHoosier.com
Hi Andrew,
I saw that as a long-time subscriber you cancelled your membership. We obviously hate to see that and I just wanted to reach out to see what we could do to keep you? Jordan Hulls and Charlie Miller have agreed to come on board as contributors as well as Mitchell Paige and we have a lot of exciting things we are working on. As a long time subscriber I am very interested in your thoughts. Feel free to reach out to me via email or my cell is listed below.
Thank you,
--
Jim Coyle
Owner/Publisher
ISB Media
Indiana - Rivals
I'm not posting to persuade or dissuade users from staying on here. I merely pointed out what would need to be done or what I think is necessary given the hectic nature of this site over a relatively short period of time. I don't care if you agree or disagree with me. I'm trying to provide a level of transparency both the old and new regime failed to provide. There is no value in you agreeing or disagreeing with my various sentiments, but it may help you find clarity in your own personal recent confusion.
Keep in mind my response is placed above Jim Coyle's per standard Outlook formatting. For best interpretation you may want to start at the bottom and work your way up.
EMAIL BELOW:
Thank you for reaching out.
If you would like me to re-subscribe, and would like me to be an advocate for your site I want to see full transparency going forward. As a business owner I'm not a believer in paying for anything I don't understand how that money is utilized.
- One- Why was your greatest asset in Nick Baumgart not retained? It is important for customers to understand why their best contributor is no longer needed. I understnad certain things are on a need-to know basis as a part of your business. However, this is a 2nd regime change in a matter of months. And if I don't understand how the new regime is going to be better without him everything else is a non-starter. As a small business owner myself I've had to explain to vendors why my manager is no longer with the company and have had to re-earn their business by continuing to earn the same level of service for the same price guaranteed in order to maintain that relationship.
- Two- Is Jordan Hulls retiring from professional basketball? Or is this an offseason quarantine revenue generator?
- Three- What are your plans to stop Bloomington eliteists (oxymoronic when it is typed out) to stop belittling those with normal lives who just want to follow their team and haave as much info as possible? This is a common them on this board, and frankly it has caused me hesitance to continue in the past. This could be more personal but there is no better time to address certain issues than now.
- Four- What is your transparent goal to improve customer interaction on this site? There are pompous losers that think they are awesome because they enjoy watching 14-18 year old boys playing basketball and haven't had kids in the AAU circuit for many years. Therefore they criticize objective criticism of recruits, and they denounce any form of questin or criticism.
- Five- How are you going to be different? I don't know you from Adam. We are all faced with economic hardship in the future. You have signed on big IU names but did not prepare for this transition with Original Content to wow your subscribers and were extremely delayed in replying to your customers. What are you going to do to earn back my money. I've offered countelss suggestions for improvement going forward through various posts over many years. If you take one to heart I'm happy to provide free commentary or donate my time in exchange for free months going forward
Please do not take the above personally, but a matter of addressing any customer during an ownership transition. I eagerly wait your response and opportunity to convince me to stay. Best practices for me are full transparency.
Sincerely,
Drew Shepard
From: Indiana Sports Beat <indianasportsbeat@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2020 3:45 PM
To: Andrew Shepard <andrew.shepard@bcmrealty.com>
Subject: TheHoosier.com
Hi Andrew,
I saw that as a long-time subscriber you cancelled your membership. We obviously hate to see that and I just wanted to reach out to see what we could do to keep you? Jordan Hulls and Charlie Miller have agreed to come on board as contributors as well as Mitchell Paige and we have a lot of exciting things we are working on. As a long time subscriber I am very interested in your thoughts. Feel free to reach out to me via email or my cell is listed below.
Thank you,
--
Jim Coyle
Owner/Publisher
ISB Media
Indiana - Rivals
