Dear Readers,
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This map took 20 hours of work.
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Two and a half years ago, I started Political Geography Now as a site for people who want to keep up with changes to the world political map. It’s grown a great deal in both readership and coverage of world events since then. And as some of you know, it’s been almost entirely a labor of love. Putting out new maps and reports requires hours of work every week, but has earned me almost zero money.
I’m happy that I can use my free time to create something cool. But after years of living paycheck-to-paycheck off part-time side jobs, the stress of creating almost-weekly new maps and articles has become too much to juggle. I’m busy all the time, but still struggling to pay my rent each month. If Political Geography Now is going to continue publishing its high-quality maps and articles, it needs to start generating some modest income.
I don’t want end or scale back the blog any more than you do, so here’s the plan: from next month PolGeoNow will continue to publish many free articles and maps on the site, but also start offering some paid premium content. If you can’t afford to pay, I understand – you’ll still get to enjoy regular updates and great maps, and the entire catalog of past articles will always be freely accessible. But if you are able to pay to support our work, you’ll get access to even more original maps and in-depth, professional reporting. I hope to even expand coverage in some areas, for example by publishing more frequent updates to conflict zone maps.
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Though it may be possible to buy individual articles in the future, I’m starting off by offering paid subscriptions to access all premium content online. Besides all the great content, subscribing will also get you an ad-free interface and discounts on special services or products the site may provide in the future. If you’re already sold, you can sign up now to lock in the introductory price!
Moving to even a partial paid model has been a very tough decision, and I hope you can all bear with us through the transition. I’m always happy to hear feedback from PolGeoNow readers, so feel free to let me know about any of your advice or concerns. Thank you so, so much for all your wonderful support so far!
All the best,
Evan Centanni
evan@polgeonow.com
An excellent initiative, as a long-time map lover I'm glad to help PolGeoNow
Keep up the good work Mr Centanni, you have my support
Thank you very much for your support, Mr. Murynets!
Thanks a lot for all those beautiful maps and well-written articles on so many subjects Evan.
A supporter from France.
Thanks, LMV! 🙂
I agree to those who commented before, you do a great job with your site, it's worth to pay for it…
A supporter from Germany 😉
Thanks for your encouragement, Martin!
I like also your content. It's a good way to keep up to date. I personnally will not access to the premium content, I'm glad you will keep updating some basic content. Nevertheless, I also understand why you took this decision, it's totally legitimate.
Xavier from France
Thank you for your support, Xavier!
You do what you need to do. This is a great site. Monetize away!