Let’s keep the Panthers chatter going, people!
Hi everyone it’s your friendly neighborhood managing editor Todd at Litter Box Cats, a hockey blog that has covered the Florida Panthers for over fourteen years.
On Friday, January 20, I was informed that our site would no longer be “managed and monetized” by our parent company, Vox Media. This means that yours truly will no longer be paid going forward. Paid contributors received their last monthly stipend for March 2023, and beyond that we are on our own.
Late on Friday, February 10th, Vox Media gave us a choice, accept an offer from a new network or opt out and go independent. They were unable to provide any details about the contract with the new provider outside of some ancillary perks and a vague outline of ad revenue sharing. So, we decided to strike it out on our own. At this time, Vox Media did agree to extend our contracts through March, but as of April 1st Litter Box Cats will become an independent site.
LBC may not be the biggest sports internet site, but over the years we have built a nice, mostly polite community that loves Panthers hockey. I intend to keep that community alive, and that is where you come in. We know that there will be some costs involved to build a new home for all of us — for all of you. So your assistance is needed.
These funds will help facilitate the creation of LBC 2.0, and will mostly go towards covering the hosting cost for the first year and taking care of some other little expenses like copyrights and whatever else crops up along the way.
My intention is for membership on LBC to remain free, for at least the first year, and then reassess once the time is taken to see if monetizing the site can make it completely self-sufficient.
It will take a bit of time, but I’m happy to have a passionate support system of readers and commenters who are active participants in our community and want to make sure that LBC continues to provide a home for Panthers fans to continue the chat.
Thank you so much for reading, spreading the word, and giving what you can if you can.