This morning, Slingshot Esports closed its doors. As an avid consumer of sports content, I was sad to see the end of it. It isn’t so much, as it was with Yahoo, a sadness born out of concern for the people involved. Dekay is the best investigative journalist in Counter-Strike, and a valuable piece at any esports website, even using only traffic as a yardstick. Stuchiu is both the most popular and the most prolific columnist in CS, and there’s not a world in which I have work and he doesn’t. That’s not to mention Vince — whose work is best described by the french word acharnement, or relentless dedication — and Emily, who was an inspiration of mine to begin writing columns in the first place.

They’ll be fine.

What is more concerning, at least to me, is the fact that Slingshot failed at all. It was one of the most frequently visited websites in Counter-Strike, both for investigative pieces and columns. The fact that such a successful website could not get by — even with their founders taking no salary — should ring the alarm bell for all of us. The advertising model, as its CEO and many others have said across all fields of journalism, isn’t working.

Slingshot was confronted with two common options:

Advertising: the use of ad-blockers was distinguished by the CEO, but it would seem that there are many other complications involved in such a model. Most importantly, that websites are incentivized to create clickbait. Short articles, attractive titles, along with a generous amount of exaggeration. Subscription: Hide at the very least most of your content behind a paywall, requiring a monthly subscription. This is the business model I support, and I gladly pay for access to multiple websites on a monthly basis. However, this will significantly reduce the traffic on most websites: obviously, most people don’t want to pay for content they don’t really want to see.

The former wasn’t working for Slingshot and the latter understandably seemed too dangerous, so they opted into a Patreon. At the time of the announcement (more precisely: a couple hours later) Slingshot had just south of 50 patrons, and an undisclosed amount of money. We’ve recently seen success in Counter-Strike with Patreon as it sparked the comeback of its best talk show: By the Numbers. Thorin, Richard and Sam reached an incredible 2867$ monthly rate supported by 467 patrons — not bad. Much of this success can be attributed to the attachment and loyalty we have with individuals, particularly those we see and hear. Speaking for myself, I naturally become much more attached to video content creators than writers. I have a particular affection for Counter-Strike writers, of course, because I speak to some of them and sympathize even with the others. But in general, a face and a voice create a greater connection than words on a screen.

This advantage helps content creators like Thorin and Richard Lewis create a brand and a loyal following more easily than a website called Slingshot would. Even if you feel a particular affection for stuchiu, you aren’t directly funding his Patreon; uou’re funding Slingshot’s. Though its possible for brands to spark allegiance in consumers as well, doing so has been difficult for even massive companies: Postmedia (a 750 million dollar company) here in Canada comes to mind.

The burden thus falls on the consumer who values Slingshot’s work and what they stood for. If you want people like stuchiu, Dekay and Emily to have full-time jobs, they’ll need your help. A rational being, insofar as he desires ends, desires its means. If you care about journalism, support it. If you want good content, that’s been thought-out and respectfully published with the right intentions, you cannot stand idle and simply consume the content.

Many of us are currently free-riding. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as economists never cease to say. The money must come from somewhere. And if you don’t want the money to come from advertisements putting a spell on your brain, then it has to come out of your pocket. And mine. The concept of paying for content seems strange to us now, I know. And you could spend your money on other things, too. But if you contributed 3$ a month, you’d be sacrificing one large coffee in order to support the content you want to read. If something ought to be done by all of those it concerns, it ought to be done by you.