Today we come to you with rather momentous news regarding the future of Sounder at Heart and Nos Audietis. As one of our most devoted supporters, we wanted to tell you before we tell the rest of the world.
Sounder at Heart has been the standard bearer for coverage of MLS teams virtually ever since the site was founded in 2008 by Dave Clark. For the last 14 years, that’s been part of SB Nation and Vox Media as we’ve become an integral part of the local soccer community.
On Aug. 21, we are officially returning to our roots as an independent soccer news site. At the same time, we’ll be formally combining forces with Nos Audietis -- which has always technically been a separate and independent venture since its founding in 2011 -- as well as maintaining our OL Reign coverage through Ride of the Valkyries. We’ll all operate under the banner of PNW Soccer Media, a name you might start seeing from time to time but will mostly remain in the background.
This is not something that is happening to us, but by us. We initiated the conversations with SB Nation/Vox Media about making this happen several months ago and they have graciously agreed to our transition plan. They’ve been instrumental in helping us grow from a tiny one-person operation into the most-read MLS blog in the world, and now they’ve approved this unique transition.
This is a very exciting time for everyone involved, but especially for Jeremiah who will be leaving his job at SB Nation/Vox in order to lead this project full-time.
We are doing this because we believe we can improve everything we do and this is the best way to ensure our long-term viability. We will continue to provide a depth and breadth of coverage that is unrivaled in any MLS market that includes daily beat coverage, in-depth analysis and informed opinion writing, all of which is grounded in original reporting.
While we’ll have a fresh-looking website and you’ll need to sign up for a new account to comment, it will still be on the same URL, have all the same social channels and our intention is to keep all our contributors, including our coverage of Reign under the banner Ride of the Valkyries.
This only works as a sustainable project with your support.
Taking after such world-class local independent media outlets as KEXP, our model is mostly reader-supported. Our membership plans will allow us to keep the vast majority of our content in front of the paywall while also offering various types of perks to our supporters.
The new website is very much in beta mode now, but we’d love it if you check it out. sign up for an account If you are a paid subscriber to this newsletter, please hold off on signing up as that may complicate the transition process, but feel free to sign into the new commenting platform and try that out as it’s separate. You can access it here with the password “Sounders74.” You can also find more information about our membership plans. (Two quick notes: 1. We are still putting the final touches on a new commenting system that will look and feel very similar to what we currently have; 2. Please don’t share this beta site too widely as it’s mostly intended for showing you what it will look like, not be an actual stand-in for the current site.)
If you’re receiving this communication, you are already a subscriber to the Nos Audietis newsletter that is run through Substack. Sometime soon, we’ll be transitioning entirely to our new platform. You don’t need to do anything to continue receiving what will become our flagship newsletter and it will look very similar in your inbox. We will, however, offer a host of new newsletters and email notifications that will allow you to further customize what content you receive to your inbox.
We’re also going to grandfather anyone who bought an annual subscription on Substack into our current membership plan. If you’re a monthly subscriber, however, you’ll need to manually renew your membership.
For early adopters, we’re going to keep the cost at $50/year and $150/year -- depending on which tier you select -- while also adding some new paid membership perks and tiers. Look for a follow-up email that explains how you can lock in that price.
Finally, we are looking for some new launch sponsors to help get us off the ground and provide some added security going forward. If you have a business or organization you think would benefit from supporting this venture, we’d love to talk to you about how that would look.
To help us figure out to make this transition as positive as possible, we’ve also created a survey we’d very much appreciate you filling out.
Thank you, and remember, you’ll never yacht alone,
Sounder at Heart editorial team
