Thread by @noahchestnut

Lots of convos this week about Quartz, NY Mag, The Correspondent, etc, etc...

I want to take a moment to 🙌 one of my favorite publications of the last (approx) year: @cleantheglass (run by @bencfalk)

If you are a 🏀 fan or just someone who cares about publishing... <thread>

Backstory: Ben Falk is a former NBA executive who worked for the Portland Trailblazers and Philadelphia 76ers. He broke down film, produced new ways of looking at stats, and helped teams make decisions

@SI_ChrisBallard profiled Ben back in March si.com/nba/2018/03/08…

Ben started Cleaning the Glass as a subscription product that offered: analysis of players, teams, and games. There were message boards too. It was a bit like Stratechery for NBA nerds.

+Ben let early customers know he'd be rolling out more advanced stats and features.

As someone who works in sports media, publishing/product, and who loves the NBA... it felt special to be able to support Ben as he started Cleaning the Glass.

Now that we're fully into year two of CTG... its exceeded all my expectations.

First - what is CTG?

It's an editorial publication that breaks down game film, players, teams, and offers analysis into how teams win and lose.

CTG is also a database of advanced NBA stats. These stats are now the gold standard for how some folks - like Zach Lowe or Kevin O'Conner - talk about the NBA on their podcasts or in their own writing.

CTG is also a community where NBA heads argue, share ideas, and play games against each other.

As a paying customer, I 😍 CTG b/c it...

* Teaches me things about the game I love
* Gives me tools to use what I've learned
* Offers me opportunities to put my new knowledge to the test

while making me feel like I belong to a group of fans who kinda speak my language

And as a product, I love how smartly Ben has used tools like @memberful & @discourse to handle customer management + distribution.

For example, Ben makes sure to post each new blog post as a discussion topic to the message board which --> A+ automated email newsletters

And as a fan of the game, its been amazing to watch CTG grow beyond Ben as he brings in amazing writers/thinkers who aren't getting published by major sites but who have a deep understanding of how to scout + coach the game.

If you are still with me (wow), I'll end with this:

Subscription media products can be great businesses that can deliver real value to their customers. If anyone is trying to make a subscription work for their pub, spend some time studying what Ben has built at CTG.