Confidential TFT Business Announcement

Dear TFT Crew,

As some of you know, I've spent a good part of the last year trying to
develop a new business model for TFT. The basic concept of this new model is to package our amazing pool of editing and writing talent as a content service for other brands. I first began moving in this direction after discussing it with our Editor-at-Large Adam Baer, who has played an important role in developing this new model. Our thinking solidified when I met Ben Abramowitz, the husband of TFT writer Rachel Shukert. Ben was then a creative director at the ad agency TBWA, and he really believed in the value of what we could offer. He also had a need for the type of quality writing/blogging we could provide for his clients. In the second half of 2010, we began working on a few accounts for TBWA. (You can check out the small business blog we've been working on for British Airways here:
http://businessconnect.ba.com/face-to-face-blog/. (In this case, we've
only supplied some of the writers/content. We've also had a few of our editors write about healthy living for GSK.)

Barring any sort of last minute disaster, we're now set to make a big
step forward in this new direction by partnering with an
advertising startup called SocialCraft. Technically, we'll be an
incubator within SocialCraft, and we'll remain entirely our own company.

SocialCraft is being started by Colleen DeCourcy, Ben's former boss at TBWA. Colleen is a really visionary ad executive who comes from a journalism background and really gets TFT. She's a big believer in the importance of quality content. The idea behind SocialCraft is to sort of pair great tech products -- new apps, api layers, etc -- with great content. The tech side of SocialCraft is going to be handled by East Media, a small tech company. The good news is that SocialCraft is being funded by an advertising conglomerate, Havas, that does a lot of non-profit/corporate social responsibility stuff. So, I think there's
a good chance we'll be able to do a lot of stuff that fits well with
our progressive leanings.

How exactly all of this will play out for TFT remains a bit uncertain,
but most important of all, I think, is that it will allow the company
to stabilize/grow. Our core mission remains to create an innovative online newspaper, and we're going in this new direction to make sure that we can continue that mission. To that end, we're getting office space (350 Hudson St), a small signing/exclusivity bonus, and the promise of real revenue to come.

To handle the corporate work, we've created a distinct division of TFT called Faster Times Media. (We'll remain a single company -- the distinction, for now at least, is merely internal. The financial relationship between the two divisions is going to have
to be figured out a bit as we go. Because we'll be turning to you guys for these paid jobs, there could be opportunities for you earn better money via TFT -- that is, if you're interested in these sort of gigs. But, in the short term at least, it will be very hard to predict which subject matters we'll be working on -- we just don't know if we'll be working with brands that need food writers, travel writers, etc. So, while I hope we're able to spread these opportunities out to as many of you as possible, it's probably not a good idea for anyone to count on this revenue.

That said, I do think this new development will benefit all of our writers a bit less directly, as we'll be using as much revenue as possible from Faster Times Media to grow TFT's readership and to improve the site's functionality. We're also starting to think about some new payment models for the articles you write for the site. More on that in the weeks ahead...

Of course, one important element of all this is drawing and maintaining very clear lines between our editorial work and our brand work. So, one new rule we'll be putting in place is that our writers can't write about any brands they've worked with. Our goal is to have entirely separate editors/project managers for the two operations, but because of our limited resources, that won't be possible from day one.

Anyhow, those are the basics. Please, of course, feel free to send any and all questions about these new developments my way.

And many thanks to all of you for believing in TFT and helping us get to this point.

-Sam