What am I doing now?
Inspired by Derek Sivers, which will be updated from time to time. What is a now page?
Updating this on a night I should have been in France commentating on Toulouse against Widnes for BBC, but unfortunately a French air traffic control strike meant my flight out on Thursday was cancelled and with no alternative available, my plans were thrown out.
Instead, a few days away in Thirsk to help unwind after a strange few weeks.
Big changes
After nearly 18 years, the decision was made to move away from running LoveRugbyLeague.com
I set the site up in 2005, it became part of my business JDG Media when I set it up in 2010, and then I sold it to Planet Sport in 2017, since when I have been employed as its editor.
It has defined my working life. The cost of living crisis has of course impacted on businesses heavily, particularly advertising spend, and when it became clear there needed to be changes to the site to protect its future, I decided that it should be me that moves on.
As I wrote on LinkedIn recently, moving away is made a little easier by the faith I have in Josh and Drew, who have been working with me since they both graduated, to take it forward in the right manner.
It’s strange not being responsible for running a rugby league website after all those years, and the change is still sinking.
What happens next?
The million dollar question. My business, JDG Media, has been successfully operating during my time at Planet Sport thanks to its excellent staff – James and Liam have recently been joined by Kerry – and so there is the potential for me to slide back in to that and take a salary.
However, I don’t want to disrupt it too much. But spending time on refining its processes, adding a new direction and a new business plan are on my radar.
But for now, I’m keeping my options open. I’m exploring a couple of ideas, including the dream of running a sports themed cafe/bar, but I’m also open to conversations.
I grew up always wanting to be a sports journalist – I achieved that in some ways, and now it feels I need to find a new dream to take me through the next stage of my career.
Football
My hometown team, Warrington Town, earned promotion to National League North recently. I have been involved at the club for more than a decade, and the achievement of reaching those levels hasn’t quite sunk in.
I have been busy running the commercial, marketing and media arm of the club, as well as the shop, to try and maximise revenue and drive it forward. Maybe the new dream is for that to be my full-time job.
Taking action
For probably the past six months, I have consumed countless resources relating to blogging, SEO and business. Most of it, I probably already knew.
Now looking at how I can just kick myself in to executing it.
Last updated: July 1, 2023
