After A Year Of Enduring The Economic Repercussions Of The Pandemic, We Were Forced To Lay Off Our Staff This Week. Yeah, It Fucking Sucks.

Dear Central Track readers,

It’s been a dark week here at CTHQ. The darkest we’ve endured in more than nine years of operations, by far.

After spending the last 12 months enduring the negative economic effects of the still-ongoing coronavirus pandemic, during which we’ve watched our mostly event-centric advertising base evaporate, our number was finally up.

With ads still not yet returning, and our forecasts for future revenue still bleak, we were forced to lay off our editorial staff on Monday afternoon.

We did not arrive at this decision lightly, but the writing had long been on the wall.

We’ve aimed to be both outwardly and inwardly transparent about our finances throughout this difficult stretch, and while a modest SBA loan and some unbelievable reader support of our efforts through Patreon have prolonged the inevitable, the math was just no longer sustainable.

If we had any intention of keeping this site alive beyond the very immediate future, this was our only choice.

And, boy, does it suck.

We are forever thankful to the staffers we’ve been forced to let go. Their contributions, commitment and hard work in the name of our site’s efforts will not be soon forgotten. Any businesses out there that may find themselves in the position to hire them will be rewarded in spades for doing so. I want to be clear: This action was by no means taken as a result of their performance; if anything, their dedication to our cause prolonged this unfortunate move. We truly hate to see them go.

So, what does this mean for Central Track’s future? For now, it means our site’s continued survival, which was our ultimate motivation behind arriving at this terrible conclusion.

I will continue to operate our site’s editorial efforts with the assistance of various freelancers from around town. With a little luck, readers will barely notice any significant outward differences in our production.

That said, while we’re wholly focused on continuing to fight the good Dallas journalistic fight for as long as we can, the simple truth of the matter is that Central Track won’t last much longer without additional support. If you’re in a position to underwrite our efforts through ads, a Patreon subscription or even a direct contribution (details on how to do so can be found here), it would go a long way towards our ongoing efforts at providing Dallas with the journalism we feel it deserves — now, more than ever.

Brighter days hopefully exist on the horizon. With some good fortune, we still aim to arrive at that future right alongside you, our readers, together.

Thanks for your continued support. It means the world. It always has.

Sincerely,

Pete

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