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Views and responses to the Q&As about madforsailing going subscription

From Nick von der Wense, USA (Edited for general consumption!)

Dear madfor sailing.com; Since you did not offer a "what do you think about this?" section I thought I might tell you guys anyway... Why madfor sailing.com is a sailor's pornography..... First as a American and as an Annapolis, MD-based sailor, resident to many a racing addict, and our own mysterious water serpent (featured on the side of the hull of a recent Volvo participant) your site is oft referred to over a cocktail in the heat of a football match. "Bugger,.. no spinning!!!",....... "Shut up A.....!!!!" "Did you see that picture on madfor sailing?" "Cool A?" (this guy is from Canada)....

As you can see there is quite a following from the locals here. So cheers to you all.....we dig your site.... We have long enjoyed our run of free legitimate Grand Prix sail reporting on the internet.

We racing sailors need our fill of the latest AC, Offshore, Admiral's Cup (not), Volvo, Olympics, Grand Prix et all news. Why wait for the silly Postman? It makes Seahorse and Sailing World seem tired and expensive (though not obsolete), except for the cool pictures, but I can always steal copies from my mates anyway. We even enjoy the occasional report on the Lark (insert any UK specific class here) weekend regatta. We would really love American tidbits too. So I say go get 'em, make it happen and good Luck!. I am completely willing to pay for your site. Do yourselves a favor and give a American dollar figure and perhaps a Euro figure for your subscription. Hell I would even give NZ dollars. You would be surprised by your following.

From Dom
Does this mean an end to the flash-ads, pop-ups and all the rest of the irritating sell-you- stuff that has become something of a feature of this site?

Advertising generates revenue to help pay for the significant costs of running a 24/7 website employing real journalists. We fully understand that the big pop-ups, interstitials and skyscraper ads make the page very ‘heavy’ and as a subscriber you will be able to turn these off after March 25th.

From Paul Haines
If you ask £24.99 a month then you will have to provide a service equal to or superior to the likes of YM of similar! With the same quality of stories / articles. At the moment you are equal to say a daily newspaper, but for people to pay the figure that you are quoting. Having used your site for the past year or so, I for one (unless standards are high) will not be subscribing; I'll wait for YM.

You have hit the nail on the head; madforsailing IS a daily newspaper. How many magazines did you see the pictures of Amer Sports One broaching coming into Sydney - those were on the site before the crew had got to the bar, let alone six weeks later. As for quality stories and articles, yesterday we had an exclusive interview with Russell Coutts and today Peter Bentley explains all about the IMS600 (which has not been discussed in any other media). If you subscribe by the 24th March the subscription will be £14.99 FOR A WHOLE YEAR so your daily newspaper, written by expert racing journalists, will cost 4p a day! YM (Yachting Monthly) costs over £34 per year for news that is normally six weeks out of date.

From Bob Houck
I appreciate the need to make money but, what is it going to cost us "yanks" to subscribe? We people in the colonies enjoy your site.

We are very proud that the site has such a worldwide appeal. The technology we have employed takes your subscription in UK Pounds. So a £14.99 subscription at today’s exchange rate is US$ 21.21, Euros E 24.54, Can$ 34.01, Aus$ 41.09, NZ$ 50.51. Your credit card company will convert the subscription at their exchange rate from UK £ into your local currency, so you will be billed in US$.

From JP
It was all too good to be true. You will have many disappointed readers... but fair enough. But I travel a lot. Will I be able to access the site from anywhere? Like a password? Or is it per ip, per machine?
You will be able to chose a username and password and access the site from any machine, anywhere in the world. We have a program running which will detect any abuse of username/password integrity. This is a similar process as Salon.com in the US who have over 3m users.

From Jonas Nouwen
It is a brave move to switch to a subscription business model. I hope it will work and that madfor sailing will not suffer the same future as QuokkaSailing. I am a big sailing fan and sailor myself. I was part of the Innovision sailing team and winner of the Admiral's cup in 1999.

So I was asking myself if I would pay for madfor sailing. I have to say that I am willing to pay for good up-to-date sailing news. But I am not sure if I will pay for madfor sailing. The main reason is that I think the site itself (not the content) is rather user unfriendly. I find it very difficult to find news. Content wise I think you are doing a good job. (Sometimes a bit UK biased).

So if you will redesign your site think about the editorial future, than I will be more than happy to pay for a subscription. If the site stays the same, then I will have to search for a new site.

The look of the site is the same as it was at it’s launch nearly two years ago. During this time the role of the site and the way the site is used has evolved. Following a successful launch to subscription a re-design is being scheduled. Similarly we intend to have stronger international coverage from, again, highly respected journalists in their local sailing areas.We fully intend to continue to invest in the service we deliver to our subscribers.

From Colin Strain
Not a question really but a comment. I have been a regular reader of madfor sailing for as long as you've been running and have really enjoyed the experience. You coverage has been so good that I almost cancelled my magazine subscription this year. Almost! Whenever I want to find out what's going on quickly I come here and as an added value your boat tests, interviews etc are all excellent. I'm surprised it's taken you so long to start charging and I've happily paid my subs. Just keep the quality content coming!