You guys know Squarespace.
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Everyone’s job has repetitive tasks 
Those long-term sponsors are long-term because podcast advertising works.
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I only had the chance to listen to an ad-free podcast for the first time today, and I loved the experience. Unlike others here, ads really bug me. I pay where I can to remove ads and support the outlets I’m using (newspaper, Youtube Premium and too many apps to count), but I’m lucky that I’m in a position where it’s affordable.
I also really enjoyed the extra section. Keep up the awesome effort!
Thanks again for giving us this option.
Absolutely.
I’m very happy for the ads, because a lot of shows wouldn’t exist without them. But I, personally, have already internalized the ad copy of several long-term podcast sponsors. However, when there’s a new one, I will often listen to it. I just listened to a Mint Mobile one the other day because I was curious what their offer was.
For More subscribers it makes sense to offer skip ads. Right now I have to keep skipping multiple times as not all ads are of equal duration. If you bookmark them as chapters and we could chose to either listen or skip.
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We bookmark toward the end of the ads now. Feels like a good middle ground.
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Two requests: could you provide some transparency on this appeal? Did your income decrease? The assertion about budgets is only a general claim, not one specific to MPU. It doesn’t help me connect to, or evaluate, your ask. It obliquely references the state of the world in 2020, offers us a new product, and leaves open some wide assertions.
What’s up with those assertions? My other request: Could you avoid personifying things like “advertising budgets” as a “casualty” of COVID-19? Like, I think I get what you’re saying, but the comparison—the way this works as a figure of speech—is pretty grim.
What’s at stake? Readers may conclude that your advertising budget has dried up or that you see human mortality as comparable to financial loss in some casual form. My sense is that you mean neither of these things. But it’s hard to tell what you’re driving at and why you’re hitching your wagon this particular horse.
The great value of MPU has always been clear to me in the hundreds of episodes I’ve listened to and learned from. I’d like to support you guys if you need it. But I’m finding this offer to be kinda murky while coming from voices I’ve come to trust over the years.
If you guys haven’t lost revenue from advertising, and you do know of podcasts that are struggling to make ends meet, could you let us know?
Anyway, no blame here. Some clear details would be helpful.
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I tried to get some answers - check out the thread below:
https://talk.macpowerusers.com/t/mac-power-users-advertising/18218/22
This topic was closed by @ismh (I reserve my comment on this). I found it somewhat interesting that @ismh closed this topic down, though.
Anyway, it’s their business and they know what’s best for them. We are listeners and it’s our decision whether we want to support them. For me personally, I have taken this opportunity to donate my time and money to charities. It is not a comparison. I can only decide for myself and with limited resources and uncertainty about future job prospects, any extra funds I have is going to charities I support. One of them also happens to be St. Jude which @ismh introduced me to and I remain grateful for that. I would have never found out about them otherwise.
I’m easy to get in touch with.
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Ok, these answers and the thread offer some additional generalizations that start suggest that parts of Relay FM took a hit but not all. Helpful, yes. But we still don’t know about MPU, which were being asked to support. So my question hasn’t been answered.
So we can interpret the appeal to read: MPU may or may not have taken a financial hit. We are offering a new way to support.
Does that feel I’m getting it?
The answers from Steven also suggest that they are “leaning in” to the COVID moment to try something they had been planning beforehand. This makes David’s language and appeal even more confusing to me. Why draw a comparison—even a figurative one—to the “casualties” of the pandemic with this banner?
Some shows are taking a bigger hit than others, and as I said in the other thread, you’ll notice fewer ads on many shows, MPU included, in Q3 and Q4. I’m not going to share specific numbers, but if you compare episodes over the next few months, you’ll notice the gaps.
As that’s how we all pay our mortgages and feed our kids, this time has been unsettling to say the least.
Also as I said in the other thread, Relay wasn’t going to be put in the ground over this, but we took it as an opportunity to launch this new type of membership, which we’ve been talking about for a while. Did COVID prompt us to finally move into it? Yes, of course. But things aren’t as dramatic as you’re trying to make them out to be.
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I had prepared an answer, but I think you already have received a better one by @ismh.
So, let me just express how I personally feel about More Power Users as you have addressed my previous post:
I do not have issues with anything Stephen or David have said or written regarding this new option. And I am under the impression that they have said and written a lot - even more than I would have done if I was in their shoes because I definitely would not have been comfortable sharing as much as they already have done about the financial situation. So, I totally get why they have not shared even more…
More Power Users is a new way to support the podcast if you like to do so. As an incentive you get a version without adverts and with bonus content when subscribing to this new option. The MPU with adverts will not got anywhere. And that’s it. 
For the time being, I have decided not to subscribe to the More Power Users because I already do support some other podcasts and there is only so much money to be spent. I might change this decision in the future, but not as of now.
Which is totally cool! We don’t want anyone to feel bad for not supporting! We aren’t going anywhere! How many exclamation points can I use?!
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the maximum number allowed is three
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Huh? I feel I’ve given you the benefit of the doubt here with my queries.
It’s like there’s a lot of feedback from some of us listeners stating that we’re feeling uncomfortable with this appeal —I’m leaving the business model aside from my comments—and we’re seeking some empathy and understanding from you guys. Instead, we’re getting chastised here.
Let me say, you and David offer tremendous value here with MPU. I want you to succeed and your families to prosper. I respect your intent on this; I’m wondering if you’re respecting the impact it’s having on your audience?
I was wanting to be addressed by this appeal—especially the language in this banner, my explicit concern that has not been addressed—in a way that does not merely rest on a common sense of loss.
Message received: things are not so dramatic. Chill. You’re concerned. You’re doing you best. Got it. I respect that.
I’m wondering if you get my perspective, too? Calling general revenue loss—which is serious, to be sure—a “casualty” of COVID-19 feels overly dramatic, a touch insensitive, and somewhat hard to parse with the other sentiments expressed here.
I think the timing of the voluntary subscription was bad. COVID-19 for sure prompted the hosts to do so. But if it was in the works, a heads up much earlier, would have gone more positively with the group. Again I look forward to hearing the podcast every week. I appreciate the immense amount of work the hosts do in the background to get them for the community. So I just subscribed immediately as a token of my appreciation. I have a feeling that most users feel guilty of not being able to subscribe with this COIVD-19 pandemic. This could be the reason users are asking for more transparency to justify if they can really subscribe if the podcast is in dire conditions. My 02 cents
I didn’t mean to chastise. I just don’t know how I better explain it without getting into specifics about my business that I’m not going to share in public. I’m sorry if I was harsh, but I feel like we’re just talking in circles.
The banner language was true, as it the face that we have been talking about doing this, and the pandemic’s effect on the business prompted us to finally get it up and running. Myke and I would like Relay FM (and all of our shows) to keep providing for the huge number of people it supports, and this is a big step to diversifying our efforts to do that.
We know it’s a hard time for everyone, which is why we honestly don’t want anyone to feel bad about not supporting — and why we aren’t moving any content behind a paywall. Membership content is all extra stuff that would not be in the show otherwise. That works for some folks, and not for others, just like every other content or product out there.
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Thanks for you response, @ismh, and for engaging my concerns. I respect that. I feel I’ve said what I need to say and I have a clearer sense of where our intentions and impacts are, and are not, syncing. Thanks for sticking with the conversation. 
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I’m sorry you’re dealing with this. This whole thread is ridiculous in my mind. There is a such thing as a bad customer, and sometimes they need to be fired. You’re a better man than me for answering these questions. Cheers!
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