Ning Update: Phasing Out Free Services

[John McDonald]

Hi,

Today we made some changes at Ning.  I want to share with you the email Jason Rosenthal, our CEO, sent to all Ning employees:

Team,

When I became CEO 30 days ago, I told you I would take a hard look at our business.  This process has brought real clarity to what's working, what's not, and what we need to do now to make Ning a big success.

My main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services business.  Our Premium Ning Networks like Friends or Enemies, Linkin Park, Shred or Die, Pickens Plan, and tens of thousands of others both drive 75% of our monthly US traffic, and those Network Creators need and will pay for many more services and features from us.

So, we are going to change our strategy to devote 100% of our resources to building the winning product to capture this big opportunity.  We will phase out our free service.  Existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning.  We will judge ourselves by our ability to enable and power Premium Ning Networks at huge scale.  And all of our product development capability will be devoted to making paying Network Creators extremely happy.

As a consequence of this change, I have also made the very tough decision to reduce the size of our team from 167 people to 98 people.  As hard as this is to do, I am confident that this is the right decision for our company, our business, and our customers.  Marc and I will work diligently with everyone affected by this to help them find great opportunities at other companies.

I've never seen a more talented and devoted team, and it has been my privilege to get to know and work with each and every one of you over the last 18 months.

We'll use today to say goodbye to our friends and teammates who will be leaving the company.  Tomorrow, I will take you through, in detail, our plans for the next three months and our new focus.

Thanks,
Jason Rosenthal

I know many of you will have questions about this announcement.  We will share detailed plans within two weeks.

I feel confident that this change in direction will be very positive for our premium service customers because Ning will be 100% focused on delivering the features and services which benefit you and help you achieve your goals.

I will be here to answer your questions and respond to your concerns.   However, today I am focusing on my team, so there may be a delay in my responses.

Thanks,
John McDonald
VP Advocacy

[Garfield Creator]

It's not a late April Fool's day joke. You got the days mixed up.

[solo]

high five, garfield

[doone]

From CNET

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20002611-36.html

[cat Lawford]

Capri - how do you do this - esp if we have 100's pages?
Copy and paste?! It will take a year.

[Garfield Creator]

I know I was just kidding about getting the days mixed up and pointing out the irony of what day today happens to be.

[Lucy Gray]

Totally agree about how the word is getting out. We have to wait for two week, or maybe less, to see a plan? Why not announce WITH a plan?

[Alan]

Yeah, I'd rather know their exact definition of a "premium site" in dollars so I know what to try and budget for, or discuss donations with my user community.

My user community got wind of this and are panicking, thinking my site will be shut down. Three people have already left because they're assuming my site will be shut down because it's free, before I got home from work and heard about it myself!

[John Kanarowski]

love it ;-)

[christi pemberton]

There will be other options that offer better services with free and paid. Ning.com just did not handle things correctly...but this will spur other social media networks to fill in where Ning.com failed.

[mike]

hi i have a question, will our networks be shut down before the details are released from ning, should i say bye to all me members? i works very hard getting where i am now, and im going to college to future my skill to teach my members everything i know, please let me know thanks so much,

mike.


Visit Mikes Designs

[Jen]

I say, hang tight Mike. I haven't heard yet, what constitutes a premium network. Plus, we're all still waiting for details in the coming 2 weeks. It's not like you'll wake up in the morning, and your site will disappear. I don't work for Ning, and can't say how much time there is. But I do feel they will make clear announcements on exactly how this will all play out.
Best to you,
Jen

[Roze Collins]

Clear announcements? I have yet to get an actual notification of any of the updates... I here it through the grapevine! Same as this.