No wonder NS is dying

corona

corona

Active member
Is everyone at NS asleep? One of the reasons most people come here is for skiing news and information that no one else covers. Winter Games NZ is happening right now. Where's the coverage? Not a single article about it. I didn't even know it existed until 2 minutes ago.

Turns out there were both slope and halfpipe events with all the big names this past weekend. Isn't there a content team being paid to write up some sort of recap or something? How many other large events have they completely ignored?

If forums are dying and you can't compete with Instagram and Snapchat for visual media, then WTF are you doing not doing news coverage of events that you can't get from social media??
 
The truth of the matter is right now its august, the slowest traffic month of the year and our full time staff is busy working on projects for this fall. Winter Games NZ hasnt really been a thing we've covered in the past and you can rest assured because we will be producing plenty of coverage this winter.
 
13939501:OregonDead said:
Give us the recap OP. What notable skiing went down at the Winter Games NZ?
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No idea. I'd could tell you if there was a recap. I'm not a skiing website with the resources to pay someone from NZ a few hundred bucks to attend the event and do a write-up.
 
13939505:eheath said:
The truth of the matter is right now its august, the slowest traffic month of the year and our full time staff is busy working on projects for this fall. Winter Games NZ hasnt really been a thing we've covered in the past and you can rest assured because we will be producing plenty of coverage this winter.
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Maybe August wouldn't be so dead if there was some effort put into covering events and happenings that go down throughout the month.

I dunno the $$ returns on a news article, but maybe it would pay off to pay for a local in NZ to attend, take some photos, and do a write-up.
 
At no point you blame the mods. 0/10 thread

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Everyone knows NS died because of the mods
 
13939512:VinnieF said:
Maybe August wouldn't be so dead if there was some effort put into covering events and happenings that go down throughout the month.

I dunno the $$ returns on a news article, but maybe it would pay off to pay for a local in NZ to attend, take some photos, and do a write-up.
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August has been historically the slowest month on NS for as long as analytics can go back on our site, august is slow because there is very little skiing going on and most people are not interested in reading or watching skiing, its summer. Our core audience is still around, but even in 2008 august was slow.

But we don't hold off on content in the summer just because its slow, but we also don't sell ads for this time of year. Sure we have a few banner ads and pre-rolls, but those are ads that are part of a much larger package that focuses on the winter and advertisers basically get slots this time of year for free because the cpm is effectively 0.

If you'd like to know more info, hit me up and I could explain it in more detail, but your idea isn't bad just not worth it. As larger events come across the calendar (first world cup is in November) you will see more coverage.
 
Wow sorry about the redundant post. I just hadn't had enough coffee yet.

I think more people need to realize that we live in a society. Each member could contribute to the forms to make them more activate. Someone in NZ should just write this article for fun and the sweet sweet karma. I know I am looking forward to my free sticker pack at 100k karma :^)
 
13939529:DirtYStylE said:
Wow sorry about the redundant post. I just hadn't had enough coffee yet.

I think more people need to realize that we live in a society. Each member could contribute to the forms to make them more activate. Someone in NZ should just write this article for fun and the sweet sweet karma. I know I am looking forward to my free sticker pack at 100k karma :^)
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still waiting on mine :(
 
13939530:DeebieSkeebies said:
still waiting on mine :(
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It's all about timing. Maybe you have too much K now. Oh well. I got my stickers in the mail in an NS envelope. People see the envelope and they're thinking woah that guy is important.
 
13939558:freeskibum82 said:
not much advertising money coming out of NZ is why.
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While you might be correct, that has no effect on our decision to cover an event.
 
13939529:DirtYStylE said:
Wow sorry about the redundant post. I just hadn't had enough coffee yet.

I think more people need to realize that we live in a society. Each member could contribute to the forms to make them more activate. Someone in NZ should just write this article for fun and the sweet sweet karma. I know I am looking forward to my free sticker pack at 100k karma :^)
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Can pretty much anyone right an article for NS? How does that work?
 
13939565:CLQ said:
Can pretty much anyone right an article for NS? How does that work?
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Click upload -> write a news article

**This post was edited on Aug 29th 2018 at 2:49:33pm
 
Comp skiing has gotten so god damn boring these days. Same shit every event.

Kids just wanna watch edits with other kids wearing their bibs over everything.
 
Today I thought "maybe i'll sign onto NS for the first time in ages"

This was the first thread that I saw....

Maybe I'm part of the problem? sorry guys...
 
13939494:DIRTYBUBBLE said:
lol this event happens like every summer and I’ve never seen coverage for it
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This is the dumbest thread I have ever 'sean'. Seems like a clever troll. Obviously nobody cares about xgames nz, genuinely. Or maybe OP is Kiwi.
 
Totally understandable angle but if every business just gave up on revenue/traffic for an entire month, a lot of these smaller ones wouldn’t be in existence.

I don’t see why because it’s historically been a slow month, that equals never ending dead Augusts. Maybe OP has a good idea although not sure this event is it haha. But there was a South American skier on here not too long ago complaining that no content is catered to seasons south of the equator. I know that I would personally be interested in reading about skiing in these places and you would also grow the community.

I know it seems easier said than done. Looks like you’ve been trying for years but I think that defeatist attitude regarding August is just going to perpetuate it being so dead when in reality there is sooome content to be posted. I would much rather watch some random NZ comp highlights than a how-to on home baked chips. Just saying...

13939516:eheath said:
August has been historically the slowest month on NS for as long as analytics can go back on our site, august is slow because there is very little skiing going on and most people are not interested in reading or watching skiing, its summer. Our core audience is still around, but even in 2008 august was slow.

But we don't hold off on content in the summer just because its slow, but we also don't sell ads for this time of year. Sure we have a few banner ads and pre-rolls, but those are ads that are part of a much larger package that focuses on the winter and advertisers basically get slots this time of year for free because the cpm is effectively 0.

If you'd like to know more info, hit me up and I could explain it in more detail, but your idea isn't bad just not worth it. As larger events come across the calendar (first world cup is in November) you will see more coverage.
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It's kinda sad how social media changed skiing and sites like newschoolers (and yeah i know there is a positive side as well)

But I remember when I finshed school, came home and checked NS to see if there are some sick edits from that day. Now I come home and I've seen a million clips on instagram, so many short edits from so many good kids and its so much harder to get someones attention for 3 or 4 minutes.

Same with movies, I've always been hyped to see all the trailers and movies but these days I consume so much skiing clips through the gram and facebook that movies don't feel refreshing anymore.

It's kinda ot and has been said before but whatever. just my two cents
 
Social media platforms are forsure changing shit up and kinda making NS not as relevant. But I just think this is the perfect opportunity for NS to innovate. Find the next new thing that Instagram can’t touch. Facebook can’t touch.

I’m not really sure what it is. But fuck it. Ain’t my website. You guys do the innovation.
 
13939512:VinnieF said:
Maybe August wouldn't be so dead if there was some effort put into covering events and happenings that go down throughout the month.

I dunno the $$ returns on a news article, but maybe it would pay off to pay for a local in NZ to attend, take some photos, and do a write-up.
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If you say a website is dying and don't visit, how is it possible that they invest money into paying for said coverage (if for ex they haven't seen much return in the past, not sure if this is the case but generally there's a lot that goes on the background that you have no idea about)? I don't think you can really make any sort of definitive judgement without knowing the unit economics and the general situation.
 
13939687:Blurst said:
Today I thought "maybe i'll sign onto NS for the first time in ages"

This was the first thread that I saw....

Maybe I'm part of the problem? sorry guys...
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same here...it's been a few months...sorry fam
 
13939730:DesertStix said:
Totally understandable angle but if every business just gave up on revenue/traffic for an entire month, a lot of these smaller ones wouldn’t be in existence.

I don’t see why because it’s historically been a slow month, that equals never ending dead Augusts. Maybe OP has a good idea although not sure this event is it haha. But there was a South American skier on here not too long ago complaining that no content is catered to seasons south of the equator. I know that I would personally be interested in reading about skiing in these places and you would also grow the community.

I know it seems easier said than done. Looks like you’ve been trying for years but I think that defeatist attitude regarding August is just going to perpetuate it being so dead when in reality there is sooome content to be posted. I would much rather watch some random NZ comp highlights than a how-to on home baked chips. Just saying...
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Its not just August, its May though September. Assuming we're over here sitting on our thumbs isn't fair either because our journalism team is busting ass on projects for this fall, spending time on these projects when we have less traffic is perfect for NS, every year we get a few months to regroup and strategize for the winter.

Its not that we do anything for the traffic to decrease in the summer, it happens every year like clockwork regardless of what we do and TBH writing one article about some low level contest in NZ isn't bringing people back. Like I said before, the articles and videos are coming back soon but its in our best interest to wait until people want to watch/read about skiing.

Everyone posting in this thread is an outlier, you guys are the core of NS. You guys come and go regardless of time of year and its fucking awesome, I love the NS community and I hope it continues to bounce back. But y'all gotta understand that summer time is slow time and its the time we catch up and plan out the winter, we're a small crew and we do our best with what we have.
 
OP i hear what youre saying but they have a finite budget, i'm sure their resources are better used during ski season. covering an NZ comp isn't going to increase the summer traffic, right?
 
Respect. Never said you guys were twiddling your thumbs just maybe focusing energy in other places which adds to the dead summer. You can only work with what you have and I understand that aspect...

13939810:eheath said:
Its not just August, its May though September. Assuming we're over here sitting on our thumbs isn't fair either because our journalism team is busting ass on projects for this fall, spending time on these projects when we have less traffic is perfect for NS, every year we get a few months to regroup and strategize for the winter.

Its not that we do anything for the traffic to decrease in the summer, it happens every year like clockwork regardless of what we do and TBH writing one article about some low level contest in NZ isn't bringing people back. Like I said before, the articles and videos are coming back soon but its in our best interest to wait until people want to watch/read about skiing.

Everyone posting in this thread is an outlier, you guys are the core of NS. You guys come and go regardless of time of year and its fucking awesome, I love the NS community and I hope it continues to bounce back. But y'all gotta understand that summer time is slow time and its the time we catch up and plan out the winter, we're a small crew and we do our best with what we have.
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13939822:DesertStix said:
Respect. Never said you guys were twiddling your thumbs just maybe focusing energy in other places which adds to the dead summer. You can only work with what you have and I understand that aspect...
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I understand you have this mentality where anyone can change anything if you try, which is true for some situations, but 90% of our audience doesn't give a fuck about skiing in the summer, they come back to the site in the fall when its getting cold and they're excited to ski.

Focusing our efforts on projects for the winter is infinitely more important than increasing traffic in august because winter is when we make money and when we receive the most traffic, our ad revenue in the summer is effectively zero.

Taking time out of the schedule to cover this NZ event, which wouldn't work because there is not a video or a live stream, means we'd need someone on the ground, which costs more money for a piece of content that returns $0. What would you do?

**This post was edited on Aug 30th 2018 at 1:34:55pm
 
Haha calm down bud. And I’m not so much focused on this specific NZ event as I am confused by the idea that baking home made chips is somehow more worthwhile than ski content. And I said I understand needing to focus limited staff energy on high volume times of the year. Not sure why you are so defensive about that.

13939824:eheath said:
I understand you have this mentality where anyone can change anything if you try, which is true for some situations, but 90% of our audience doesn't give a fuck about skiing in the summer, they come back to the site in the fall when its getting cold and they're excited to ski.

Focusing our efforts on projects for the winter is infinitely more important than increasing traffic in august because winter is when we make money and when we receive the most traffic, our ad revenue in the summer is effectively zero.

Taking time out of the schedule to cover this NZ event, which wouldn't work because there is not a video or a live stream, means we'd need someone on the ground, which costs more money for a piece of content that returns $0. What would you do?

**This post was edited on Aug 30th 2018 at 1:34:55pm
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13939825:DesertStix said:
Haha calm down bud. And I’m not so much focused on this specific NZ event as I am confused by the idea that baking home made chips is somehow more worthwhile than ski content. And I said I understand needing to focus limited staff energy on high volume times of the year. Not sure why you are so defensive about that.
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Its my bad, I don't mean to come off defensive, I'm just trying to be as transparent as possible and explain the situation, it's all good man.

You're referring to this article
https://www.newschoolers.com/news/read/A-simple-delicious-guide-baking-Seasoned-chips

This was written by a member, we did not pay for this article or tell this member to write this article. Members write articles all the time that have nothing to do with our staff, NS is a content site that anyone can contribute to and we share it on social because we share our community content with the masses, we do this all year long.

But I understand you guys are itching for content and with the current internet, everyone is used to instant content in their hands every day. Could we spend some money now and create ski content from the areas where there is snow? Sure but the ROI is never worth it. If we had a member of our journalism team living in NZ and they wanted to pump out articles, we'd encourage it but we wouldn't be able to pay them because we need our budget for the winter. I hope that clears it up a bit for you, just trying to explain the situation.
 
Honestly NS fires me up in the summer. Don’t check it everyday but when I do there’s pretty much bound to be some dope season edits that kids work on all spring and summer and cuts from all the camps. summer is the best time to troll around the threads when you’re bored. I think the app has done a lot to modernize the website and I love looking at it while I’m taking a shit at work.

Also if y’all want to pay me to go to Argentina and NZ I’m def available.
 
13939824:eheath said:
I understand you have this mentality where anyone can change anything if you try [/b]
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This doesn't really apply to this thread or anything at all, but I have an idea:

Would it be possible to create a travel reviews section? I'm thinking barebones, upload your own photos, and write a review or travel plan of what you did. I think this would be sweet for people who travel the globe and even bored teenagers on summer vacations. People may not add much content, but I've got like 20 countries I would be willing to add. It would even be awesome for ski resorts... for example: If I had never been to Killington before then I would have no idea what parks to peep, what trees to hit or what bars to go to. Same goes for mountain biking or cliff jumping 3 states over from me...

The reason I think NS is a good spot for this is that people here like to go out and do shit, wherever/whatever it may be. Also, I think we're all on a fairly similar wavelength, so I'm not interested in creepin' through tripadvisor... it's for fuckin' tourists.
 
13939842:Twinjibber77 said:
This doesn't really apply to this thread or anything at all, but I have an idea:

Would it be possible to create a travel reviews section? I'm thinking barebones, upload your own photos, and write a review or travel plan of what you did. I think this would be sweet for people who travel the globe and even bored teenagers on summer vacations. People may not add much content, but I've got like 20 countries I would be willing to add. It would even be awesome for ski resorts... for example: If I had never been to Killington before then I would have no idea what parks to peep, what trees to hit or what bars to go to. Same goes for mountain biking or cliff jumping 3 states over from me...

The reason I think NS is a good spot for this is that people here like to go out and do shit, wherever/whatever it may be. Also, I think we're all on a fairly similar wavelength, so I'm not interested in creepin' through tripadvisor... it's for fuckin' tourists.
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Dope idea.
 
13939801:nutz. said:
If you say a website is dying and don't visit, how is it possible that they invest money into paying for said coverage (if for ex they haven't seen much return in the past, not sure if this is the case but generally there's a lot that goes on the background that you have no idea about)? I don't think you can really make any sort of definitive judgement without knowing the unit economics and the general situation.
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This argument isn't great since it can just as easily be turned into 'it's dead because there's no content' rather than 'there's no content because it's dead'. Really, the content should come before the traffic. You can't expect to not put out content, have traffic miraculously appear, then put out content to satisfy.
 
I'm fine with NS being dead in the summer so long as sweet content will come. Just seems like there are some low hanging summer fruit to be had that really wouldnt cost much and keep the site more relevant throughout the summer which would be good for southern hemisphere peeps as well as retaining users throughout the year rather than having to entice them all back each fall.
 
13939839:mikemac said:
Honestly NS fires me up in the summer. Don’t check it everyday but when I do there’s pretty much bound to be some dope season edits that kids work on all spring and summer and cuts from all the camps. summer is the best time to troll around the threads when you’re bored. I think the app has done a lot to modernize the website and I love looking at it while I’m taking a shit at work.

Also if y’all want to pay me to go to Argentina and NZ I’m def available.
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Can you write? We're in need of more freelance bloggers. Not for travel, but there certainly are opportunities if you're talented, interested and available. PM?

13939904:VinnieF said:
I'm fine with NS being dead in the summer so long as sweet content will come. Just seems like there are some low hanging summer fruit to be had that really wouldnt cost much and keep the site more relevant throughout the summer which would be good for southern hemisphere peeps as well as retaining users throughout the year rather than having to entice them all back each fall.
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You raised some good points. Apologies for not catching this event, definitely wish we could have covered it. Look, our content execution isn't perfect and we know that. None of us are looking back at this event and proudly claiming we didn't do anything about it. Our team is swamped compiling content for the fall and we are understaffed. It's a known weakness of ours and we try our best. We also need to recruit so like I suggested to mikemac, happy to have a chat with anyone who has some drive to freelance. Appreciate the feedback, hope to improve on this moving forward.
 
Dorko: Our team is swamped compiling content for the fall and we are understaffed. It's a known weakness of ours and we try our best. We also need to recruit so like I suggested to mikemac, happy to have a chat with anyone who has some drive to freelance. Appreciate the feedback, hope to improve on this moving forward.
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Just to echo this, we have plenty of budget for content creation, in fact this year we have a bigger budget than I can ever remember us having. We are still looking for story tellers who can turn that budget in to something spectacular. Our few full time staff have been spending this summer creating content, planning content gathering trips, writing reviews and redesigning sections of the site, which is why things like the event in question, the Junior Freeski World Championships, have been missed. To cut a long story short, if anyone out there is interested in being part of our news/content team, hit me up and we'll talk.

**This post was edited on Aug 31st 2018 at 11:21:20am
 
13940042:ski_stee said:
There is a market for ski content year round absolutely.
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I disagree, not that many people want to think about skiing in summer. Im willing the bet 95% of NS users are in the northern hemisphere as well.
 
13940044:CLQ said:
I disagree, not that many people want to think about skiing in summer. Im willing the bet 95% of NS users are in the northern hemisphere as well.
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I'm literally getting paid to write freelance for a ski website right now.
 
I’ve persobally reached out to you guys about freelance writing. You never responded lol

13940012:Twig said:
Just to echo this, we have plenty of budget for content creation, in fact this year we have a bigger budget than I can ever remember us having. We are still looking for story tellers who can turn that budget in to something spectacular. Our few full time staff have been spending this summer creating content, planning content gathering trips, writing reviews and redesigning sections of the site, which is why things like the event in question, the Junior Freeski World Championships, have been missed. To cut a long story short, if anyone out there is interested in being part of our news/content team, hit me up and we'll talk.

**This post was edited on Aug 31st 2018 at 11:21:20am
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Skiing is a seasonal business. Pretty much every ski and rental shop pivots to biking, golfing, or some other summery sales opportunity. Same with actual ski areas, and people who work at them. NS kinda pivots to cliff jumping blended with Southern Hemisphere and Summer Camp shredding, along with threads about aspiring ski bums asking where to live next winter.

Maybe NS can just shift to frisbee golf for the summer months or coverage of parking lot culture at music festivals?
 
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