Back in November, we at Pegasus News had a lot of our technology in place, a handful of people working on the product-to-be, and nothing in public but my mediacentric blog. Alan had recently joined the team, and because he was a musician himself, he was most interested in focusing on the music section we had conceived but not yet built.
He talked with a few club owners and became convinced that there was a lot of demand for better, more comprehensive music coverage hereâand that reminded me to look up Cindy, who I knew a.) via her excellent local music blog (TexasGigs) and b.) because I’d played poker with her husband, Scott.
We met in mid-November at White Rock Coffee, and right there, that day, decided to join forces to marry Cindy’s blog and music knowledge with our technology and manpower to launch what you now know as TexasGigs. The new site launched a mere five weeks later.
As you may have gathered, our plan is to launch a larger news service under the name Pegasus News, a service that will do for politics, crime, youth sports, theater, neighborhood news, and all other areas of local interest what TexasGigs is doing for music. We all knew that as we got closer to that launch, we’d all reevaluate what we wanted to do on a go-forward basis.
Six months in, we’ve had that conversation, and Cindy has decided she wants to go back to basics, focusing on music blogging and podcasting in her own space. So, she’s launching a new site called The Fine Line. She’s been good enough to let us keep the TexasGigs name and URL, which we were “borrowing” up to now.
While we certainly will miss Cindy’s contributions here, you’ll be seeing a lot of links to cool stuff she does on her new site. And, our team -- Alan, Blair and our 15-person volunteer event and venue update staff, are going to keep bringing you all of the updated show info, interviews, stories and live recordings you’ve come to expect. (In fact, Cindy made this decision around Memorial Day and we’re only now finalizing it, so the site has been running that way for a week and a half.)
We’ll always be grateful for the major assist Cindy provided in helping us get this site off the ground. We can’t wait to see what she comes up with on her new site. And, we can’t wait to bring the TexasGigs touch to all other areas of local interest – and soon.
Comments
Pikahsso allen Poe Verified
mannnnnnn wowwwww booooooom powwwww that's heavy wish the best of luck to Cindizzle
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
johnnylloydrollins Anonymous
yeah..... hhhmmmm...
cindy.. call me
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Chris Machart Verified
Wow Cindy... can't believe you'd let TXG go.. I'll be emailing you... soon.
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Sol Anonymous
Sounds like a power move to me... I had my suspicions that something like this would happen when Cindy mentioned the move to Pegasus News. Expect some repercussions guys...
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
jivetalker Anonymous
Dude, this site is the best thing to ever happen to local music. I'm staying right here as a loyal reader.
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jesse Hughey Staff
So in other words, there's ANOTHER site I have to go to every day. What are Flat Cindy's thoughts on all this?
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
tania Anonymous
sad news... after all cindy has done for our scene, our musicians, i have personally witnessed her devotion, blood, sweat and tears just for some media giant to take her good name, and everything she has worked for these past few years... so dissappointed.
why can't you launch your own blog and call it pegasus news. you should let her keep her name, she is synonymous with texas gigs, she had the name and the site first.
what bad taste for pegasus news to do this to such an important contributor to texas music.
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
In response to a couple of the comments above, particularly Tania's:
In case it wasn't clear in my post, Cindy's decision to leave was exactly that-- HER decision. I did not ask her to leave, suggest that she leave or want her to leave. She decided that she wanted to go her own way and let me know that over Memorial Day weekend. And for you conspiracy theorists-- she could certainly say otherwise here in the comments or on her new site if that was not the case.
Until yesterday, we had absolutely no long-term right to the TexasGigs name. We had license to use it, a license that Cindy could revoke at any time she chose. She certainly could have taken the name with her, and there is nothing we could (or would) have done to stop her.
I certainly understand the identification of the TexasGigs name with Cindy and the goodwill that came with it. That's why we used the name when we relaunched the site, even though we were only covering DFW music.
However, I'd urge you to look at this from another angle. The people here at Pegasus News partnered with Cindy because we believed that the work she was doing deserved a larger audience. And, more strong backs to carry the load of covering more than 1,000 local bands. We brought what technology and manpower and marketing ability we have to growing the site.
And it grew from a relatively small core of readers to over 1.2 million monthly pageviews in just four months. I can say with mathematical certainty that the overwhelming majority of readers of this site never saw her old site. That growth happened because Cindy now had a larger platform for her work, and because she now had a team of volunteers and resources who did all of the mundane, unglamorous work of building 1,000+ band pages and meticulously enterting and correcting information on more than 700 concerts most weeks.
Which brings me to the one thing above that gave me a good belly laugh: This "media giant" consists of myself; my partners Gary and Kevin; full-timers Alan and Blair; and a team of about fifteen part-time volunteers. We don't have big bucks or lots of resources. None of us have drawn a salary in well over a year. We have all committed our careers and put a helluva lot at risk personally to try to build a local news site that is both useful to the casual reader and interactive for the avid. (Which is why I can guarantee you that we're the only media outlet in town that would provide a forum like this for members of our community to openly criticize us.)...
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
...
To Cindy's credit, she understood the damage that could be done to our larger business and the jeopardy it would create for our dedicated team who has already risked so much if we had to to abruptly change the name, URL and logo. So, she sold them to us. I'm very grateful that she did so. But let me be clear -- we did not "take" anything. And she was free at any moment to say "no." But she knows that while we've all sweated together, we have risked our homes and personal finances to build this business.
Yes, Cindy was the founder, "guiding light" and one of the key voices on this site. And I wouldn't dream of taking anything away from her on that front. But the thing that bothers me about these sorts of comments is that they so minimize the important contributions of Alan, Amit, Blair, Brett, Carin, Caroline, Chad, Chris, David, Huong, Jill, Kaitlin, Laura E, Laura S, Sandra, TJ, Todd, Gary, Kevin and a few others who are "underground" because of day jobs. On an average week, we post over 800 new items on this site -- and no one person does more than 50-60. However, many of these people put in 60+ hour weeks without pay. And this is their vocation.
It was, I believe and hope, out of respect for those folks that Cindy chose to let us keep the name. It is my intent to ensure that it doesn't lose its luster.
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Pikahsso allen Poe Verified
Much love to Cindizlle and Mike Orrizzle and Allizzle and Blizzle ok enough of the Snoop talk im glad yall still on good terms and thanks to both of yall for all the love yall have shown to me and PPTizzle.... ok had to do one mo for the rode.....
Peace Pikahsso
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Elizabeth Eshelman Verified
I think that it will be hard to associate TXgigs with anything but Cindy, but I know we're all anxious to see her http://finelinelive.com project with Amanda (who I've been keeping an eye on anyway due to her great work at Dada.)
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
todompol7 Anonymous
So, Cindy works for YEARS building this site, only to sell it then have to START OVER doing the SAME THING? Sorry, Mike, but something doesn't add up. I'm sure there are two sides to this story, but with the limited amount of imformation out there, all one has to do is THINK about it and see that Mike's/Pegasus' side sounds full of SH!T.
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
ScottChaffin Anonymous
As the poker-playing husband who helped engineer the TG/PN mash-up, and as the background co-founding partner of TexasGigs four years ago, I strongly recommend taking off the tin-foil beanies, folks. Cindy's decision to leave was her own, and everything flowed from that. There was no Evil Corporation conspiracy on the part of Pegasus News.
I believe that Cindy's new joint will show the same sort of inventiveness and freshness that the the original did. I also believe that Mike and the crew will continue to grow into their vision of actually one day being the "media giant" some think they are. I heartily recommend that all of you continue to support both of them.
Just so it's crystal-clear to the loony ones: I'm speaking for myself (Scott Chaffin), not my wife (Cindy Chaffin). She's perfectly capable of doing that herself if she so desires. If you've been around awhile, you'll know she won a few awards for it over the years, too.
You may now replace the beanies and get back to whatever it is you do. Over and out.
2 years, 7 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
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