The Editorial and Publishing Arm Season 5 Budget Proposal
Authors:
Frank America#0610
hirokennelly.ethᵍᵐ🏴#0001
Trewkat#1933
Date: July 6, 2022
Summary
In Season 5, the Editorial and Publishing Arm (EPA), a project team with strong connections to the Writers Guild, will continue to grow the Bankless Publishing brand through the publication of high-quality Web3-related content on our newly launched website, https://banklesspublishing.com. In order to preserve readership and increase education, we continue to archive content on our BanklessDAO Medium page (which averages 6,000 views per month and 4.87 hours of read time per day).
The focus on Season 5 will be to continue to publish great content on BanklessPublishing.com while using that material and our new website/brand to attract advertisers and begin to earn revenue, putting us on the path to project self-sufficiency. To this effect we have implemented custom advertising slots on all articles and homepages that hyperlink to sponsorship contact forms. Despite the bear, our team continues to pursue top-notch sponsors, many of whom became aware of BanklessDAO’s excellent work through the Client Services arm.
Through the EPA and its for-profit sister Client Services, BanklessDAO writers have the opportunity to have their work published and promoted to an ever-increasing audience. This includes running their work through the gauntlet of supportive and collaborative content and copy editors, custom cover designs tailored to the ethos of each piece, re-works and strategy as necessary, and finally tailored tweets to 56K followers, RTs from notable DAO members and locations, Telegram promotion (250 and growing), and Discord blasts to various guilds. In short, we have become authors’ Web3 launch pad to personal brand awareness.
SEASONS BACKGROUND
Since Season 2, the EPA has operated as a project with close ties to the Writers Guild, defining the project, and spinning up the guide rails to success.
In Season 3, the EPA funded a Coordinator role and implemented the Staff Editors Circle. This has had a positive impact on the quality, accuracy, and consistency of shipped content. The Staff Editor initiative has alleviated what was previously a disproportionate quality assurance load placed on the content managers at the final step of the publishing workflow.
In Season 4, the EPA chose to forgo an official coordinator. Instead, the responsibilities were shared between two Content Managers and two Lead Staff Editors. The publishing workflow has been refined and emphasis has been given to providing opportunities to incoming Staff Editors (who pass an editing test before approval to the position).
During Season 4, the EPA has successfully met its stated KPI (as per S4 funding requirement) of publishing twice a week, building banklesspublishing.com, and seeking sponsorship/ad revenue for the new website.
A gallery of links to published content is available in the EPA Notion.
CROSS-GUILD COLLABORATION
The EPA also improved its cross-guild and project coordination, shipping articles largely prepared by Bankless Africa, the Research Guild, and Bankless Research. We expect to continue to expand our services to other content creators, guilds, and projects within the DAO who can benefit from the exposure provided via Bankless Publishing.
NEWSLETTER EXPANSION
In Season 5, the EPA also plans to begin shipping summaries of its articles to BanklessDAO’s 12,000+ Substack readers bimonthly. Through this initiative, the EPA should be able to further increase impressions and article views on banklesspublishing.com, thereby expanding revenue opportunities.
MISSION & VALUES ALIGNMENT
The EPA publishes high-quality articles designed to inform, investigate, educate, and entertain audiences wanting to learn more about going Bankless (self-custody of cryptocurrency). This work is strongly aligned with the DAO’s mission to create user-friendly onramps for people to discover decentralized financial technologies. The EPA fosters the DAO’s values of education, integrity, decentralized governance, and crypto culture through a focus on talent mentoring, shared project leadership, open workflows, and consistent standards.
SPECIFICATION
In Season 5, the EPA will continue to grow its readership, cultivate talent, and work towards project self-sovereignty. The EPA will focus its energy on developing Bankless Publishing as the home for both introductory ‘101’ content and subject matter expertise. We will broaden our content menu for writers who are unsure about which topic to choose, while also providing a pathway to reach more experienced writers.
The following funded roles will facilitate weekly production:
Lead Assignment Editor
(4,000 BANK per week x 13 weeks) = 52K
- Manage and refresh a list of assigned topics for writers to choose from or be assigned.
- The focus will be on filling the gaps in ‘101’ content and ensuring currency and relevance to the bankless audience.
- Work with the Lead Staff Editor to assess incoming article submissions in terms of content gaps and topic coverage.
Lead Staff Editor
(8,000 BANK per week x 13 weeks) = 104K
- Work with Lead Assignment Editor to assess incoming article submissions in terms of required editing lift and writing style.
- Manage the kanban board and ensure accepted articles move through the editing process in a timely manner.
- Post editing opportunities for qualified EPA Editors tag holders and ensure equitable assignment of editing tasks.
- Work with the Writers Guild Talent Scout to assess submissions of the Editing Test by prospective staff editors.
- Take notes at the weekly EPA working session.
2 Content Managers
(8,000 BANK per week x 13 weeks) = 104K each
- New website management.
- Attract and engage advertisers/sponsors.
- General layout of article and quality control.
- Final edits and tweaks of the article for quality assurance and SEO.
- Draft and tweet copy for bDAO Twitter page and Telegram.
- Cover design coordination (working with bDAO designers to get a well-suited cover).
- Attracting talent.
- New author engagement
- Work with current authors to get articles ready for publication.
Treasurer
(2,000 BANK per week x 13 weeks) = 26K
- Responsible for paying contributors every two weeks
- Collection of contributor payment information
The following bounties will be payable for contribution to a published article:
Writer, Editor, and Designer Bounties
Budgeting for 2 articles per week
Writers
(Up to 12,000 BANK per week x 13 weeks + 50,000 Bonus) = 206,000 BANK
Writers will be paid a rate of 3 BANK per word up to a maximum 6,000 BANK for published pieces.
For example: A 2,000 word article would earn the writer 6,000 BANK.
At the end of Season 5, the five articles with the most views recorded on the Bankless Publishing website will each earn the writer a 10,000 BANK bonus.
2 articles per week at max pay of 6,000 BANK = 12,000 BANK per week.
5 articles at close of Season 5 each earn a 10,000 BANK bonus = 50,000 BANK
Editors
(Up to 16,000 BANK per week x 13 weeks) = 208,000 BANK
Content Editors will be paid a flat rate of 4,000, 5,000, or 6,000 BANK per edit. The rate depends on the editing lift required: 1,2, or 3.
An article with a content editing lift of 1 will represent a ‘light touch’ by the content editor, whereas a lift of 3 will represent an intensive and time-consuming editing process. It is anticipated most content edits will be rated at 2, which falls somewhere in between these efforts.
Copy Editors will be paid a flat rate of 2,000 BANK per edit.
Cover Designers
(Up to 8,000 BANK per week x 13 weeks) = 104,000 BANK
5,000 BANK Pool per week for Content Managers to leverage cover designers.
In-Article Charts/Graphs and Layout Designers
(Up to 5,000 BANK per week x 13 weeks) = 65,000 BANK
5,000 BANK Pool per Week
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
BRAND USAGE
Bankless Publishing leverages the BanklessDAO brand through retention of the Bankless concept and by maintaining a strong presence on the DAO’s social media channels. We aim to continue this strong trend and enhance ties with Bankless entities.
SUCCESS METRICS OR KPIS
- +100% growth of the Bankless Publishing Twitter account from 74 followers (as at July 6, 2022).
- Publish at least one article per week during Season 5.
- Place at least one paid advertisement on the Bankless Publishing website.
NEXT STEPS
Next steps will be to continue with the business of creating and publishing quality content.
SQUAD BACKGROUND
- Hirokennelly.eth
- Trewkat
- Frank America
Our three squad members have worked closely as a team during Season 4 to steward the EPA in the absence of an elected Coordinator role. Hiro and Frank are Content Managers while Trewkat has been the Lead Staff Editor since the inception of the role.
We look forward to continuing to serve the BanklessDAO ethos for seasons to come.
MULTISIG ADDRESS
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