Attention: Paid Subscribers (Present and Future)
Changes incoming as I wind down paid subscriptions for the foreseeable future
Dear Paid Subscribers Past and Present:
THANK YOU. Your contributing financially to this endeavor at any point, whether you dip in and out, choose one month, one year, or sign up as a founding member, is so, so appreciated.
It tells me that exposing the airlines and the battles fought and trauma endured by the (mostly) women featured here matters. They matter.
Sadly, I’ve spent all of it and more on counteracting the massive downsides to this work. I’ll explain more after the paywall.
All of that said, I’m hoping to shut down paid subscriptions for the forseeeable future, but this will be voluntary on your part.
What this means for current paid subscribers:
You may continue your subscriptions if you’d like, and nothing will change for you unless you take steps to end your subscription. If you have any trouble cancelling at all, reach out anytime.
The price you signed up for would remain the same if you don’t cancel, BUT
The price for any NEW paid subscribers is now so ridiculously high that that no one will sign up, thus effectively shutting down paid subscriptions.
Why not just shut it off? What does this mean for potential new paid subscribers?
I need to keep some articles paywalled indefinitely, and I can’t do that without *technically* accepting paid subscribers
Also, it’s important for founding members, who have paid for infinite access to all paywalled content, to continue to receive that benefit.
And finally, I expect a rebound, a refresh, a renewed energy in this space at some point, whether in a few months or a year or more, so I’m keeping the possibility open.
Why are you doing this?
We are in a lull. Life is peaks and valleys, and right now The Landing is in a valley. Views are down, engagement is low, and big stories I’ve spent time on are collapsing when people change their minds, ghost me, or find their legal situations have shifted (this is normal and I support it; victims and survivors get to control when and where they speak out). As you might know, my main source of income comes from my books as myself, and under a pen name, Courtney Hargrove, and I have been falling down on that job since this began.
This lull, as I’m calling it, is due in large part to the lack of sharing and amplifying these women’s stories, and that, in turn, is largely due to the reality of employment in the aviation and airline industries, which stifles activism by limiting and controlling social media use and scaring the hell out of the people they bully and abuse. The two words I hear repeated most often from those who don’t want to be seen supporting victims are Seniority, seniority seniority, and afraid, afraid, afraid.
There have been some recent stories with disappointing reach, readership and engagement, and while that doesn’t harm me personally—it’s not like I run on ads or page views—it hurts the women who speak up at great cost to themselves, so I don’t know how many more want to take that risk and feel like their story dies on the vine.
The stories will not stop coming, but they will be fewer and further between. Keep reading, tipping me off, and sharing.