Announcing Some Changes to Our Postseason Coverage

October is one of our busier months editorially. We cover all of the postseason action, from previewing the relevant team strengths and weaknesses that might define each series to writing game stories for every game, with our writers often at the ballpark to bring you insight from the clubhouse. In fact, this year, we’re committed to having staff at every World Series game, allowing for additional reported work and greater access to players and team personnel, with in-person coverage throughout the earlier rounds as well. Needless to say, it’s a lot of work and travel, and it also sits outside the cadence of our usual baseball coverage, as it’s one of the few times a year when our staff consistently works on something resembling a beat writer’s schedule.

That’s why it’s frustrating that the amount of advertising revenue our playoff coverage generates is often so meager. The baseball season is predictably cyclical, and while many of our readers frequent the site regardless of which teams are playing in the World Series, from a traffic standpoint, October pales in comparison to March or July. As the field dwindles and more fanbases are disappointed, folks check out, often reengaging with us when free agents start to sign. We think comprehensive postseason coverage is vital to the fan and reader experience, but given the current state of both the internet and advertising, the scale needed to pay for that editorial content is well beyond what October FanGraphs generates in clicks.

It’s just one more place where the importance of Membership is making itself felt, which is why this year, you’ll need a FanGraphs Membership to read our postseason coverage.

If you’ve been on the fence about Membership, we hope this provides a nudge to sign up. This postseason paywall will only apply to those pieces that are related to the playoffs. We’ll also have at least one article a day that sits outside the paywall, whether it’s germane to the postseason or about something else entirely; while we want to incentivize Membership, we still want there to be some amount of discoverability on the editorial side of the site.

As a new Member feature, we’ve added gift links to our articles, allowing you to share our postseason coverage (or any our written work more generally) with your friends and family. Plus, gift articles are presented ad free to their recipient.

As I mentioned in my State of FanGraphs piece this year, Membership makes FanGraphs possible, and it’s hugely important to our continued viability going forward. It’s also the best way to experience the site, and comes with a host of exclusive features, including:

• ✓ Ad-free browsing
• ✓ Unlimited FanGraphs & RotoGraphs articles
• ✓ Gift articles to non-Members
• ✓ Playoff editorial content
• ✓ Historical & platoon projections
• ✓ Leaderboard & player-page stat heatmaps
• ✓ One-click data exports
• ✓ Customizable player-page dashboards
• ✓ Dark & Classic site modes
• ✓ Weekly Members-only mailbag
• ✓ FanGraphs Walk-Off, your year in review
• ✓ Optional homepage photo removal

As always, thank you for your support, and if you’re not already Member, please consider becoming one today!