Over the past decade, we—an international team of writers, editors, photographers, designers, programmers and tour guides that call the German capital home—channeled as much of our passion for the city as we could into the Slow Travel Berlin project. Through articles, essays, workshops, tours, books and events, we have been committed to profiling the city in all its glorious diversity, from its rich and troubled history to its vibrant present.
After a series of unfortunate events (the gory details of which you can read more about in our first post on Steady below), we were forced to stop work in 2016. I took the site offline for a while but it felt wrong to keep all this great content by so many people unavailable, so I looked for ways to get it back online.
I knew I couldn't run it for free any more, so I started looking at how we could raise funds for our basic costs: hosting and admin fees, as well as paying people for their writing, editing and research work. To that end, we decided to start a crowd-funding campaign via Steady in 2020. Thanks to those who opted to support us, we have been able to update many of the 500+ articles on the site as well as add a few more between then and now, at roughly the rate of one per month.
As time has gone on, however, the membership has gradually dwindled; a natural and inevitable process given we can't expect people to support us forever, especially not in today's post-pandemic economic climate. So while I am very grateful for everyone who has supported us this far, and especially those who continue to do so, we are getting dangerously close to the basic minimum needed to simply keep the project afloat.
In short, we need another push for more money if we are to continue creating content. And since we are still very much in favour of remaining independent (i.e. not beholden to investors, advertisers or funders), as well as a pleasant reading environment for our web content, we need to once again appeal to the people who matter most to us—you, our readers.
So if you value what we do, and especially if you have enjoyed all our free content over the years, please, please please consider helping us get back to what we do best: creating engaging, informative and practical content across a wide range of themes from art and architecture, social issues and sustainable culture, to food, literature and local history.
To ensure you get some bang for your buck, we will make all future articles members-only for a limited time, and also begin building a more regular newsletter just for you that will include a mix of news, opinion, event recommendations, exclusive info and discounts on upcoming tours, and whatever else we can think of. You can also write and tell us what you would like, of course. We would like that a lot!
In short, there isn't really a limit to what we can achieve with some financial support. And as one of the only websites in the city that isn't driven by advertising/sponsorships and the like, you can rest assured that whatever we do, we will always support the same values we have always loved and believed in—Berlin as a city of openness, tolerance, diversity, and community.
Thank you for your time and support. Let's see what we can build together?
Paul Sullivan (founder) & the Slow Travel Berlin team