As part of the September Back Indie Media Drive, I’m shedding some light on how I think about Kineticist in the long term, what it takes to run a publication like this, and why it needs your support to continue.
In our last update, I wrote about the identity crisis of calling myself a journalist and what it means to do journalistic work in this space. This time, I want to get practical and talk about dollars, cents, and the tools we use to produce our work every week.
Running Kineticist and This Week in Pinball is not free, cheap, or something a sane person would do for fun. I know this. You know this. Or if you didn’t, now you do. To keep it sustainable and, importantly, independent, it needs support from readers like you.
The high-level view
Every year, it costs me roughly $10,000 to keep Kineticist and This Week in Pinball running. That’s more than the cost of a new-in-box Stern Premium pinball machine.
When I started this project, I was buying about one new-in-box game a year. But now, Kineticist is my “new machine”. It’s where that money goes.
But unlike a game that sits in my basement, this one’s playable by tens of thousands of people every single month and contributes to the vibrancy of what I’ve often thought of as the best gaming community on the planet.
That’s why I’m asking: if you enjoy what we do here and want projects like this to continue, please support us with a paid subscription. $60/year is the most popular option. Five bucks a month. Or a cheap beer at an arcade.
Getting in the weeds
I’ve wanted to write something like this for a long time. It’s heavily inspired by the detailed list that our friends at Pinball Map have on their website, but since we’re not an open-source project, it always seemed a bit too transparent.
Keep in mind, I’m not a coder! I rely on a variety of platforms and tools that enable me to build without dealing with too much code.
Are there ways to do this more effectively and cost-efficiently? Of course. Could a full-stack developer build something like this in their sleep? No doubt in my mind. But, this is how I, as a marketer-cum-journalist was able to build something that works on my own.
Front End & Publishing Tools: $3,000/year
Webflow: Powers most of what you see on Kineticist.com. It’s the best site builder I’ve used (and I’ve used a lot) as it helps me get granular on the design and display of content without needing to hire a developer.
Beehiiv: We added Beehiiv when we acquired This Week in Pinball. It runs the newsletter, handles subscriptions, and performs other publishing and business functions that Webflow can’t do as easily.
Finsweet: Adds important design structure and functionality on top of Webflow.
Database & Backend: $240/year
Airtable: My do-it-all database platform. All the game data, various content pipelines, and other moving pieces live here. Without this, not much else works properly.
Data Connectors & Automation: $1,600/year
Here’s what I like to think of as my “not a coder” tax. They provide important connections between tools or other time-saving automations that help me maximize my time and spend more of it creating content.
Whalesync: This lets me sync data between Airtable and Webflow. When I make a change in Airtable, it appears on the live site within seconds.
Data Fetcher: Pulls data from third-party APIs and feeds into Airtable.
Zapier: Connects things like form submissions and game ratings with Airtable and Beehiiv.
N8N: A newer tool I’m experimenting with that I use to power a couple of internal data monitoring tools (one of which is now public-facing via our PinBot feed).
Hosting & Optimization: $600/year
Cloudflare: I use Cloudflare for their DNS services, and to help keep the site fast, secure, and block scrapers and AI bots.
Digital Ocean: Hosts some legacy systems from This Week in Pinball and runs our N8N instance.
Graphics & Media: $340/year
Canva: It’s easy to use and relatively cheap. I use it for 99% of our graphics work.
Shotdeck: I use this to pull cinematic stills for our newsletter headers (I like it better than stock photos, and it’s faster than doing a new custom graphic every time).
Kapwing: The Canva of video editing gets used on rare occasions when we need to edit video clips.
Adobe Lightroom: Necessary for editing my own photos, especially when I shoot with my digital camera.
Analytics & Data: $190/year
Plausible: I hate Google Analytics 4. Plausible gets me exactly what I need, fast, and it’s built on a foundation of privacy.
Administrative & Business: $4,100/year
Google Workspace: Provides email, docs, storage, and video conferencing. Boring but essential.
LLC & Accounting: Annual fees to keep our LLC in good standing and make sure taxes get paid on time. Firstbase.io has been helpful here.
Travel: Increasingly, I’ve been traveling to cover game launches, visit manufacturers, and attend major industry events like the Pinball Expo. Our best stories rarely happen unless I’m on a plane and meeting people in person.
Content Subscriptions: I subscribe to a lot of other pinball creators. Partly to show my support, and partly because access to the paywalled content and group chats can be helpful for our reporting.
Things that I’m not counting
My time: When I was in consulting, I’d bill anywhere between $200 and $300/hour, and if we did that calculation here, we’re easily talking six figures. But that’s not how I’m thinking because this is what I’d rather be doing.
Marketing/advertising: Early on, I needed to spend more here, but now that we’re a little more established, I can be more selective with paid promotional activities. For example, we just spent $500 to sponsor the PAPA 22 tournament.
Freelance writers: We pay our regular contributors fair freelance rates. We could have leveraged people’s pinball passion for more volunteer support, but that never felt right. People should be compensated for their work.
Imagine it’s a pinball machine, but it’s a newsletter instead
Why tell you all this? Because indie media projects like this one don’t survive on positive vibes alone. It survives because people believe in it enough to chip in and support it.
I used to think that if the work’s good enough, it will speak for itself and people will subscribe on principle. But that’s just not how things work. That’s why I’m doing things like participating in the Back Indie Media Drive and why I’m being so blunt and transparent here.
I’m contributing at least a pinball machine a year. Can you contribute, too, with a new paid subscription?
Our subscription options range from $25/year to $120/year. Most people pick $60/year.
Paid subscribers get the satisfaction of keeping us independent, access to our private Discord server, and exclusive content like our Moving Units series.
But, more importantly, your support helps us continue working for you, instead of chasing advertisers and sponsors.
Thank you for reading!
More ways to connect:
If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.
We have a pinball memes group on Facebook.