Good afternoon, fine sir/madam. As you may already know, we are holding a fundraiser to hire 11W's first full-time beat writer.
Many of you have already given generously and we are beyond appreciative. Thank you, it means a lot to us. For those that may be on the fence, allow me to give you an example of how a beat writer will make Eleven Warriors better.
Last week, Ohio State made S&C director Mickey Marotti available to the press in the middle of the week. Marotti met with reporters to discuss the state of the program and answer questions. When he finished, John Simon and Etienne Sabino took turns at the podium. As this occurred during the middle of the work day, we were unable to attend the event. With a beat writer, we're tweeting the event live and following up with a story and video.
Events like this happen all of the time and with the staff of this site working full time jobs, many of them are impossible for us to attend. The beat writer solves this.
Now, we could probably raise the money for a beat writer if we NASCAR'd the site out with ads, went to a subscription model or implemented sketchy revenue streams like popup ads, in-content text ads (the annoying double-linked words you find on certain sites), auto-playing video ads or any of a number of solutions that will cheapen the 11W experience.
We don't plan on doing any of that, so we're asking for a little bit of help. It's an important step in the evolution of 11W and if things go well, we will only have to ask for your help just this once.
Still not convinced? Here are the top 10 reasons to Respect the Basement:
10. We still owe punitive damages to Bar Louie and the City of Columbus for Drink Too, Brutus 2011.
09. Consider donating what you would have spent on doughnuts in one month to 11W. NOW WE'RE ALSO YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PLAN!
08. It will be nice to have an organ bank on staff.
07. We lost a lot of money to Art Schlichter. Don't ask.
06. We can at long last afford the cover to Ray Small's REALER THAN REAL CLUB ICESTRAVAGANZA.
05. Consider it hush money. Who is to stop us from telling your manager how much time you spend on 11W while on the clock?
04. Donating allows you to truthfully add "Twelfth Warrior" to your resume and include 11W as a reference for future employers.
03. Congress will gift Michigan to Canada, but they want to see action on our end first.
02. Your contribution, regardless of size, categorically makes you a Job Creator.
01. If we hit our fundraiser goal, we can hire someone other than Bruce Hooley.
