Blueshirt Banter 2024 Year In Review

Good morning all,

As we roll into 2025, Blueshirt Banter has transformed from what felt like an amorphous thing earlier in the year back into what has always made us great. There are a lot of reasons for that, so let's dig into our 2024 year in review.

First I want to add some context about what plagued the site in the beginning of the year.

When SB Nation disbanded the hockey network, we all formed back together and discussed how we could move forward. We tried to do it as a group. But after giving it some runway I realized some of the changes were doing serious damage to the way we produced content and the overall consumption and enjoyment of the site. Once that was realized I moved us back to an independent entity and we started to do things the way we've always been successful. For those of you who stuck around through that period, or left and came back, thank you.

When I asked you all earlier in the year if you were OK with us making the podcast free – to allow the way we shared audio on the site to work better for all members – the overwhelming answer was, yes. You all said you wanted more people on the site to interact with every day.

And while it's not all because of the podcast, we've never had more subscribers to the website. The comment section feels alive again. We often have over 100 and sometimes as many as 300 people on an article at the same time every day. It's not where we were at when on SB Nation, but that was a free-to-read website. And yet, even with the subscription model, we're getting there. It's a beautiful thing to see, and I hope you're all having more fun coming to the site every day than ever before.

I think I made it clear on a podcast a few weeks ago (listen here, it's in the first five minutes) that for every paid member to Blueshirt Banter, that goes directly into the pockets of our writers or is invested back into the site itself. While Mike, Eric, and I are still not receiving any money for this, the site is slowly working itself toward a place where we're not in the red every month.

That said, we're investing time, money, and resources in really good ways.

1) As you have likely been able to tell, we've invested in actual photos, like the one you see above. The site has never looked better, and we're getting more social media and news play because of them. They come at an extraordinarily high cost compared to everything else on the site – mostly because they are daily if not multiple times a day costs – but they are necessary.

2) Because of our growth and increased member count, we've needed to upgrade our tier on Ghost. This isn't something you'll see, and there are no real changes to the site itself. It's just a fixed cost to assure we can handle the increased loads to the website. Just adding this for transparency.

3) We've added new writers. Avery has joined us to provide overall thoughts and longer think-pieces on the team. Keegan has joined us to be a much needed, and long sought after, Hartford Wolf Pack specialist. There's other pieces in the works here too, but nothing to announce just yet. But stay tuned.

One more thing to be on the lookout for: email newsletters. Coming soon, we're going to start delivering more of our content directly in your email inbox, for both our paid and free members. This will include Bantering Points every morning, Game Recaps, and Breaking News. We'll also share how you can adjust your email newsletter settings to your liking.

I'd also be remiss not to give a special thank you to all the writers of this website for what they do. The site could not exist without them. Specifically, though, Mike, Tom, and Eric has been enormous helps behind the scenes doing a lot of the heavy lifting you don't see every day. They have been invaluable support structures of this website, and more often than not when you see something on the site you like it's because of them.

And finally, a thank you to all of you. Thank you for being here, whether you're paid or a free member. We are working toward some really cool things, but I think you've all seen the value with some of the recent changes we have made.

We literally could not do this without you.

Thank you again, and looking forward to an amazing 2025!

Joe Fortunato
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Blueshirt Banter