It’s official. CHUD.com has brought on a partner. A co-owner. In time, they may very well be the sole owner of the site, leaving me as the guy running the show but not the one writing the checks and trying to make sense of the business side of things, making sure we have advertisers and preparing us for today, the first day in the world of CHUD.com: The Next Generation.
In addition to hiring two full-time employees in the form of Devin Faraci and Micah Robinson, we’re making a few of our contributors a lot more present. If you haven’t noticed the increased output already, keep an eye open for more stuff from guys like Russ Fischer, Jason Pollock, Eileen Bolender, Ian Arbuckle, and a few more as well as the artistic stylings of Simon Wright and Jeremy Butler behind the scenes.
The major thing, in addition to site content of which the likes we’ve never had, is a brand new CHUD.com, one which will replace this chassis 100% in a few months, one being designed from the ground up by a firm we hired who will not only make the site easy to navigate, gorgeous to look at, and faster than slicked shit, but also with an insanely dense community aspect that no site like ours has. Granted, it’s only good if you guys use it, but we’re making the effort and I think it’ll be something else.
Don’t fret about the site becoming somewhat ‘corporate’. Our partners know why the site got to where it is and has no plans to interfere with the day-to-day. If anything, they’ve allowed us to stay on point even more and you’ll notice a lot more stuff going on here as well as in the real world at conventions, junkets, and in events we try to arrange around the country.
So, thanks for being so supportive until now. It’s time for this site to take off and really turn the corner. Come along, will you?
Here’s Devin’s comment, now finally able to focus 100% of his time on this site and his true love: movie journalism. Don’t be surprised if he starts to spend an inordinate amount of time on the West Coast soon:
"I’ve been writing for CHUD for a long time now, and the dream has always been to do it full time. Nick and I have talked a lot about how we’d improve the hell out of what was already a pretty great website if I had a chance to focus all of my energy on it. That time has finally come, and to borrow a phrase from Jane Austen, this shit’s about to get real." – Devin Faraci
Details will be shared in this thread as we get them.
Note: The graphics and stuff on this page were taken from some of Simon’s test ideas for the new site.