2018 By the Numbers: An A+ Members Exclusive

Hello, it’s me again and also — it’s you again! Or perhaps you’re brand new here in which case, here we are for the first time, what a pleasure. Welcome to this thing I started doing in 2016, during a time when nothing made sense to me except numbers and it turned out that wow, you really liked numbers, and that makes sense too. So I did it in 2017, a winter too dark to remember and then I did it in 2018 because listen I like to keep a good thing going. Now here I am in 2019, at the mercy of the universe, as we all are, you know? But we do have this: these numbers, the charts and graphs and lists of our lives like sand through the hourglass.

We’d like to politely request that you do not share any of these graphics outside of A+ and instead enjoy them only here on this page right now with us as a family! Okay? You might notice the graphs are cuter this year, that’s because Design Director Sarah edited them and made them pretty.

Most Popular Content of 2018

Who Wrote What

Another year, another opportunity for Heather to inch ever-closer to beating me for Most Posts. Although it bears mentioning that she also coordinates all the Boob(s) On Your Tubes and those are now attributed to the TV Team rather than her specifically. So I’m not sure if it’s totally fair to say that she did not beat me.

Money Money Money

Income & Expenses

Last year I said “Our goal for this year is to add another full-time staff member,” and lo and behold, we achieved no such thing! We actually had to cut back what we spent in the editorial department, but also adding full health/dental/vision benefits for our employees was a significant add-on. We weren’t able to replace Subject Editors who had to leave for more financially beneficial pastures, either, so we definitely did not achieve that goal BUT who knows what this year will bring! The fact that it’s been broughten at all is ’cause of you. Last year, revenue and expenses went up at similar rates (around 7% – 8%). This year, our revenue went up 14%… but expenses went up 22%.

Merchandise

Doing this graph at the end of the year gives a strong advantage to merch released earlier in the year for the “New This Year” section. I realize this now, and will deeply consider it going forward.

You People

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!
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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3303 articles for us.

118 Comments

  1. Thank you for all your labor in putting this together! Did you mean AS will need 1,000 more members by June 2019 to survive? My eyesight is not the best, but I think the graphic says June 2018.

  2. Also, as others have mentioned in the comments on previous posts, I do not understand why a rich celesbian hasn’t donated a large amount to keep AS alive.

    • GOOD POINT. I hear a bisexual celebrity recently came into $130,000, which she should spend on Autostraddle, aka everyone’s girlfriend.

    • I’m not a social media person but can’t we start a Twitter campaign or something to do exactly that?

      • @emilydanvers – I think a Twitter campaign is a great idea.

        There are so many LGBTQ+ celebrities and, *more importantly*, straight people who could and should donate to Autostraddle!

        Everyone reading this comment, I invite you to comment on this thread with ideas for hashtags (#SaveAutostraddle ?) and who we could tag/reach out to on Twitter, to invite them to donate themselves or at least spread the word.

        Some of my ideas are the following:

        – Ellen DeGeneres

        – People associated with shows or movies Autostraddle has helped promote in a serious way – for example, “Vida” people and “One Day at a Time” people (creators, writers, actors, etc)

        – People regularly featured in No Filter or Pop Culture Fix or Vapid Fluff because that is essentially free publicity – King Princess, Patters Page, Kristen Stewart, etc

        – Straight and/or male celebrities who have said they care about LGBTQ+ people.

        – Cis men actors who have played trans women in films or shows.

        – Celebrities who have said homophobic sh*t in the past and are doing damage control / trying to prove they aren’t homophobic.

        – People who are known for raising money for sh*t, like Lin-Manuel Miranda

        – People who are tweeting about how sh*tty all the media layoffs are and how they “support writers.” Donating to AS is a concrete thing they could do to show that and also feel better and less helpless.

        – Anybody who donates to or supports the Human Rights Campaign in any manner.

        Hopefully a campaign like this would get regular people to hear about AS and donate or become members even if the celebrities don’t do anything. What are your ideas, everyone?

        • Other ideas for fundraising:

          

- Asking for people to donate to Autostraddle for our birthdays or holidays

          – Writing in the comments on the AS website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter encouraging people to become A+ members or send a donation.

    • Hello everyone. I am working on some fundraiser ideas with a potential donor. If you would be interested in helping, please send me a private message or tag me in the comments here 😊

  3. CONGRATULATIONS ON HEALTH INSURANCE!!! That’s AWESOME!!! BE PROUD!!! I will resume plugging A+ in the comments.

    Question – what is A-Camp’s margin? Would everything all fall apart if it was every two years or something? Have you had a kind outsider you all trust sit with your team while you really seriously consider doing less and slowing down?

    I’m also in favor of a wikipedia style “We still need x more A+ members to have Autostraddle 2020” banner or somesuch.

    • hahaha yes everything fell apart this year because our a-camp profit margin was so much smaller than it normally is, since we went to a much more expensive site, spent way more on staff and supplies! but didn’t charge much more. doing it every two years would kill the company, we’re actually considering doing *more* events.

    • ok so to answer your original question i have done some math and! the ideal profit margins for events are 30%-40%. ours was 31% in 2016 (for the spring camp — it was like 6% for the fall camp), 28% in 2017… and 13% in 2018. so 2019 we obviously have to do things differently to get that margin back upppp

    • if the ducks stay in a line, I will have a real job this August and a real paycheck in September and Autostraddle has played a huge role in my quality of life throughout this grad program. thank you for the reminder of how I can pay that back! have put a note in my calendar to revisit this in the fall.

      • Yes! I’m defending my PhD this semester, should be doubling or tripling my income by fall. Autostraddle will definitely be getting a cut of my new disposable income!

        • I’m another person graduating soon. I should hopefully be graduating in May and hopefully I can bump my membership when I get a job in my field.

          • Congrats on almost graduating!!!! Have fun :D also hope you find good people to work with along with that disposable income :) HIGH FIVE GO TEAM!!!!

            Autostraddle helps us get through school so we can get jobs & then get A+ memberships that help us get thru life! Such a virtuous circle!

        • Congrats on defending your PhD!!! Hope you find good people to work with and disposable income :D GO TEAM!!!

    • you are a true hero and i am so sincerely grateful. thank you, from me and also the whole autostraddle family. 💜💜💜

    • Wow, that is so awesome!

      Note to self: figure out how to sell out to The Man so you can pour alllll your newfound disposable income into meaningful causes like this one.

    • I actually did a similar after the last call! I don’t even make all that much money but my expenses are pretty fucking low because of good health insurance and 8 housemates, so Autostraddle gets $100 from me and as much word of mouth advertising as I can reasonable accomplish while still maintaining any friendships at all.

      • This reminds me… I know a few well-compensated tech dudes who make a point of putting their money where their progressive politics are.

        I’m going to suggest that if they’re looking for a new place to donate (at least one tends to switch up which causes he supports regularly so it’s not like, only Planned Parenthood for the rest of time) to consider Autostraddle!

      • YAAAAYYYY HIGH FIVE!!!! GO TEAM!!! and plus to housemates and splitting rent (and in my case receiving baked goods & sharing pet care) :D

  5. Always love the numbers!

    It’s interesting how you said that AS bought fewer freelance pieces overall last year. I would have thought that with all the issues pieces it would go up – unless those are classified differently?

    Would be interesting to know how the issues are working out re: cost-effectiveness.

    • by freelance i meant everybody besides senior editors — so like the technical definition of freelance rather than the one we use, which is to refer to people who aren’t on the “writers” team or illustrators team either.

      but yeah that’s a good point and honestly i think if we’d started issues earlier in the year, there’d be more in that column — but also like, we had three subject editors step down this year for better financial pastures (carolyn, mey and nora) and didn’t replace them, which i think is probably the main factor in that dip. mey used to write a LOT! and people like erin, kaelyn, austen and carrie wrote a lot less than they did last year.

    • Interesting question
      “Would be interesting to know how the issues are working out re: cost-effectiveness”

  6. Love the graphs as always! My favourite part is the most read articles list, it’s interesting to see exactly how much people love sex and Janelle Monae.

  8. I loved all of this information and learning everything, and Sarah made the graphs and lists look amazing! I’m a sucker for a pretty color scheme and nice font haha.

  10. Hi hi hi everyone! I’m an A+ member now! Yaaay!

    Thanks for putting all this info together, Riese! Autostraddle is far and away my favorite source of news, fun, and community on these ole interwebs, so I’m deeply invested in your continued existence. I just put my new Read a Fucking Book pin on my jacket and then joined A+. (Only Cobalt right now, but as soon as I get a better-paying job you better believe I’ll upgrade.) Thank you for working so hard to make this place everything it is!

  11. Hi, Riese, I love a graph and also deeply deeply the work you do. Thanks for the transparency and the fun fun fun data.

  12. One of my regular expenses just went down because my new insurance covers my therapy, so once I hit my deductible (which shouldn’t take long) I’ll absolutely be upping my subscription level. <3 In the meantime, I'll be badgering my facebook friends and twitter followers to subscribe.

  13. When I was in the US and faced with the interminable depths that is US Netflix, I literally thought about weeding through the site for the TV shows and movies on Netflix articles.
    Sadly, I ended up being too lazy to do so and ended up watching “AWOL” and “Concussion” back to back which gave me not only serious whiplash, but a mediocre existential crisis, both as an old school lesbionic TV viewer and a gentrified lesbian.

  14. I’m relocating this year and am crossing my fingers for a better paying job, so here’s my promise to you and the universe that if I get one I’ll bump up my level from bronze.

    Love all the graphics and information and all that you do!

  15. It is f-n fantastic that a priority for Autostraddle was “adding full health/dental/vision benefits for our employees”!!! I am happy to be a new A+member and Riese — I’m an IAA grad 20 yrs your senior with some seriously good alum stories from queer arts land. You should rile up all the queer IAA alums from the woods of Michigan and have them donate! More soon — good work!!

    • YAY WELCOME TO A+ thank you HIGH FIVE!!! GO TEAM A+! Invite your friends :D . — <3 fellow A+ member

    • omg that’s so cool that you’re an IAA grad! i do not think any of us would be here now were it not for me having attended interlochen, it’s so fundamental to who i am and what i think is possible in the world. sometimes i can hardly believe it was real, and that’s what i hope people feel at a-camp, too.

  16. Thank you for all you do and showing us the numbers. And providing health and dental is amazing! I’m wondering, since you said you were looking to do more events, what if you did some smaller, more local things around the country? I hope this doesn’t sound dumb, but when I was in college back in the day, I was president of some club and would always host these fundraisers at restaurants where people would eat there and the restaurant would give a percentage back to the club. I don’t know how well that would work, or even how much it would make, but it could be a good opportunity to get people together to mingle AND raise some money for our favorite website. Again, love you and all you do. <3

    • this is something we’ve discussed for sure! i think smaller events are tough because the actual profit is ultimately quite small (like when we did rodeo disco in nyc i think we hoped to make $1k or so) and we don’t have anyone on staff who has the time to coordinate it on top of their regular duties. we have talked about that and experimented with different ways it could work over the years but could never settle on a place where the money was worth it for how much effort had to be put in by a staff member and by whoever our contact is on the ground. and putting our name on something makes us liable for whatever happens there, literally and figuratively, so we do need a certain degree of involvement.

  17. FYI: I just did a bump (not of drugs) and got a “www.autostraddle.com is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500”. However, my account reflects the bump. I just want to make sure you got paid…

  19. I’d love to be able to commit more a month, Autostraddle has played a huge part in me being more comfortable with being a lesbian in the last couple of years. I’m cutting my hours at work to sort my health out so can’t outright up my monthly donations so I’m going to try something different that other people could try doing too, which is:

    Donating 25% of whatever’s left in my account at the end of the month before payday. Probably won’t be much until I’m back at full time hours but I bet if a lot of us did something similar (with whatever percentage you can afford) that could make a difference.

  20. I’m really hoping to get a new job soon, and ideally it would allow me to make regular donations on top of my A+ Membership. Fingers crossed for a prosperous 2019!

    Also, thank you for this data and for all the work you do!

  21. The numbers are interesting. Can I ask what sorts of audience growth efforts you have in place? (I am asking just because it’s what I used to do professionally and I have tons of time to kill now that I’ve been laid off.)

    • currently, none! we’re just treading water.

      if we get the funding we need there are two groups we’re specifically focused on growing our readership within though

  22. Can we do an autostraddle comment week again? And somehow tie it to A+? I don’t know I miss comments.

  23. Everyone who can see this post because you’re an A+ member, everyone in this post talking about giving even more money to our community, I want to express my thanks from the deepest and truest place in my heart. Every single time that I go to the pharmacy to pick up the medicines that allow me to live a relatively pain-free life, every time I go to the doctor for an emergency or to check up on an old ailment, every time my paycheck gets deposited, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for you. You’re the reason I have all of those things, and I want you to know I know how lucky I am. In the last year especially, media companies with greener financial pastures have tried their best sales pitches to lure me away from Autostraddle. I have never been offered a job for less than twice what I make here. And yes, of course, that kind of money at those kind of prestige mainstream publications makes my eyeballs get as big as a cartoon wolf, every time, at least for a minute. But what keeps me here is you, us, what we’ve built, the work we do that no one has ever done before, is not doing now, and will never do again. This is a scary-ass time for digital media, and there’s no place I’d rather be that right here with you. We don’t get everything right at Autostraddle, but I promise you we try — and we’ll never stop trying. We have never made a mistake because we don’t care. Lord, the amount of sleep we have collectively lost because we care, so much. I know all of you who are A+ members make sacrifices so I can have birth control and keep my endometriosis under control, and the steroids I need to be able to move my joints when I have an arthritic flare up, and emergency vet visits for my wonderful and wacky cats. And I thank you and I thank you and I thank you.

    • “And I thank you and I thank you and I thank you.”

      This is what we want to say to YOU. You make our lives better every day and we know you pour your heart and soul into this because it shows in the work. Truly, thank you Heather and Riese and everyone here at AS for all you do.

    • heather this si beautiful and your writing is so consistently brimming with kindness and care and incisive beauty i don’t know how you do it! i am so grateful you are here at autostraddle!!!

    • It makes me smile so much to think that I can steer funds towards CHIKIN!!! for Socks! Thank you for being here Heather :) You all are SO BRAVE and it helps me keep going with my livelihood in a tiny mighty fragile kickass organization too :D

    • Thank YOU for staying and for doing the work! Your writing is wonderful and we’re so glad you have health insurance now!

    • “I have never been offered a job for less than twice what I make here.” That’s dedication!

      I must admit I’ve been doubting I’d renew my membership (due in March thanks to Erin and “soft butch Lady Di”) because so much of the popular stuff on AS is alienating to me, so I’m reading less and less. But there’s still worthy and interesting writing, much of it from Heather, and I’d be bummed if it folded, so Thank You Heather.

  25. I’d like to echo what everyone else is saying about appreciating you guys being direct and clear about what you need financially to keep going. I’m sure it feels awkward to be that blunt about money, but it really hammered home to me how important supporting you is. Autostraddle is in many ways my queer community and it would be terrible for me to lose you.

    • :::sigh::: hit the submit button by accident

      Meant to continue, I’m supporting you because YOU support me.

  26. I love the numbers posts! Thanks for the transparency of showing us what goes on behind the curtains
    Also congratulations on adding full health/dental/vision benefits for our employees! You’re a good boss, Riese

  27. About more events: I will repeat my suggestion of Indoorsy version of A-Camp in a convention center somewhere
    Perhaps Vegas? Like ClexaCon? seems fun

    • Ooh, that does sound good. I will never go to camp, and that’s even knowing Mary Lambert was scheduled to attend!

  28. i love this and i’m gonna try to bump my membership up soon!!!! i am so grateful for autostraddle every day and i wear my new autostraddle longsleeve with pride. i am so so so so so so appreciative of all the sacrifices you guys make to keep autostraddle alive and i hope it continues for a long long time (and that i submit something!!!) and that i get to go to a-camp with my best friend when we have enough money for it! thank you thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  29. Thank you for all that you do and I am so happy to hear that you made health insurance a priority for your staff!

    I had an idea last summer while I was watching some of the A Camp performances from afar through Instagram stories… Would it make any financial sense to charge people so that they could stream A Camp performances? I realize the cost of having a camera person and the extra tech might make it more expensive than the money you could bring in. But I just wanted to mention it because I would 100% pay money to stream camp performances ❤️

    • Oh shit I would def pay for this too! I had thought I would be able to make it to A Camp this year but, alas, it’s going to have to wait till next year. In the meantime, I would pay to stream or would pay for any type of experience that could bring a little bit of A Camp into my home. 💜

    • I imagine they would have to be very very careful not to show any campers’ faces for confidentiality/safety reasons, but if that could be figured out I think this could be a fantastic idea

    • yeah unfortunately being able to do that in a way where the picture was clear and the sound quality was great is something we’ve not really been able to do even in videos we take at the time to watch afterwards, so i think streaming would be beyond our capabilities. wireless is also not super reliable at camp and we’d have to find someone to do it on top of the a/v crew we already bring in. also a-camp performances that we have put on youtube haven’t gotten numbers high enough to make me think that it would have a huge draw. i do appreciate the thought though! we do think and talk a lot about if there are ways to bring a-camp into the lives of people who cannot attend

      <3

    • As someone who is housebound and unable to travel due to disability (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity), I would LOVE the chance to participate in A Camp virtually in this way!

  32. Love all of you and the work you do, always.

    Beyond honored and shocked that one of my articles made the top 10 for this year whattttttttt

    And, upping my subscription level.

    • HOOORAAYYYY!!! Congrats so much on your writing & also thank you for building the community in comments and also thank you for bumping your subscription! GO TEAM!!!

  33. Also just wanted to note that I have such a huge appreciation of your transparency about autostraddle’s finances.

  34. I think I say this every year when you do the big numbers post, but I really appreciate how transparent you are with us about the financial aspects of running this site. It makes me feel good about being a member/donating. This weekend I’m going to look at my budget and see about bumping my membership up from Silver to Gold.

    I also love the idea of more Autostraddle events! I’ve been wanting to go to A Camp since it’s inception but between my job/kids I’ve never been able to make it work. But if there was an Autostraddle party/event situation in my city I could totally find a babysitter & get my ass there. (I’m still determined to make it to camp one day though!)

  35. Question!

    I’m currently a Silver member and would like to up to Gold membership. How do I do that?

    I’ve attempted to click around the nav and can’t quite figure this out.

  36. Now I’m curious about the stats on how many of us upped subscription levels after this article. It seems like a fair number!

  38. i was gonna just say ANNUAL!!! because obviously the annual is a bigger bump in our bank account that day which is very good for us. so i always say annual. but then … it’s true that monthly is more money overall…

    i think the thing about an annual is that it’s a guarantee for us of 12 months of A+ money from a specific person, and it also fully covers the cost of perks whereas a monthly one can take two months to pay out AND whereas the monthly we can’t necessarily count on because you could cancel or get a new debit card and not update your info or you could be my girlfriend and we could break up and then you could cancel out of spite or something, but if you’re my girlfriend and we break up and you have an annual subscription you just have to swallow it until renewal comes around you know?

    so i guess ultimately there are advantages/disadvantages to both?

  39. I had to downgrade from bronze to cobalt at the end of last year because postgrad life is… a struggle, but hopefully later this year I will have an actual income again and can commit to spending more supporting you guys. Autostraddle is where I come for any entertainment news, and I trust your recommendations on TV, comics, and movies more than anywhere else on the internet (because nowhere else on the internet cares about queer people like autostraddle does).
    Thanks for everything you do!

    • I just realised since I’m paying monthly, Bronze is only $2 more, so I’m going to increase it again! Hopefully later in the year I will be able to either increase again or give a larger donation.

  40. this is my first january as an A+ member, and i absolutely love getting to see more about how AS functions. so intensely grateful to riese, the team, and this entire community – i honestly don’t know what i would do without autostraddle. i upped to gold a few months ago but am planning to give more regular donations as well. THANK YOU.

  41. gonna try to get a raise so i can donate more! honestly, autostraddle and a-camp were the things that kept me afloat in 2018. i don’t know what i would be doing without everyone’s commitment to this website. like, autostraddle is my life.

  42. Hey, everybody! I am working on a fundraising campaign idea with a potential donor, so please message me if you would like to participate in organizing efforts!

Comments are closed.