Some news for you at the start of 2025: as I mentioned recently, this year the blog will move to more of a subscription model. That will be a gradual change, I imagine, and I’m not sure where it will end up. But the costs of running a restaurant blog have gone up every year, as has the traffic to the blog, so I’ve reached the point where I feel like it’s reasonable to ask readers if they would like to contribute.
I know this is a contentious subject. Everything costs more, everybody has less money and – let’s be honest – we’re used to reading stuff on the internet for nothing. But there’s an increasing trend of writers moving to a subscription-based model, and I can see why. These aren’t people who are sticking four pictures, a Reel and some hashtag-laden word salad on Instagram and describing themselves as bloggers. These are proper writers who think that proper writing should be worth something.
Don’t laugh, but I consider myself in that camp: this is about paying for writing, not for food.
When I mentioned this on social media I got an interesting mixture of responses. Some people were willing to subscribe to ER and pay a small monthly fee to keep the blog going (thank you, if you were one of those people!). More people were happy to subscribe but didn’t want to make a financial contribution. And quite a lot of you wanted the blog to stay on WordPress and remain free of charge.
I understand. Free stuff is great. But this blog’s been free for eleven years, and in that time it’s hopefully entertained some of you on a regular basis. It might have steered you away from awful restaurants, helped you find some great ones or assisted when you’ve planned a city break. Even if you’ve not agreed with me when I’ve reviewed a restaurant, perhaps you’ve enjoyed disagreeing with me. I get that: I enjoy disagreeing with people too.
Some people expressed concerns about having to go elsewhere or sign up to another website or app to read the blog. I completely appreciate that, and I’m very reluctant to leave WordPress, which has been the home of ER since the beginning. Fortunately – and thanks to the reader who pointed me in the right direction – WordPress should have the functionality I need to make the changes I want.
Here’s how it will work – you’ll have the option for a monthly subscription to ER for £3, or a discounted annual subscription at £30. I hope that enough of you will want to support Edible Reading in one of those ways that the blog can cover its costs, and that money might also help me to create additional content (whether that’s features, interviews or something else).
For now, I’ll leave it a few weeks and see how that goes. But in the future, some reviews may well be available to paid subscribers only. Features might be, too. The readers’ lunches, an enormous success since they launched in 2018, remain open to all for the time being but again, they may also become subscriber only at some stage.
A few bits of feedback I received stuck with me. One said “In principle I don’t tend to pay for content on social media”, and I wanted to say something about that.
The promotion I do for my writing – whether it’s on Threads, or Facebook, or Instagram – yes, that’s all social media. But the blog isn’t. The blog is writing, and I do think writing is worth supporting. Just because the likes of Berkshire Live and the Chronicle have devalued that with cut and paste clickbait and websites laden with adverts, doesn’t mean we should all accept the lowest common denominator everywhere (incidentally, if the blog had paid subscribers the first thing I’d do is upgrade the WordPress plan and get rid of the ads – wouldn’t that be nice?)
Someone else said if my motive was to showcase and improve the Reading food scene this was a counterproductive move. I understand, but I don’t think promoting Reading and charging subscription fees are mutually exclusive. Reading UK gets money to do a dreadful job of promoting Reading’s independent scene; I’ve effectively been doing it as voluntary work for over a decade. During that time every single website like this one that somebody has set up has folded. Time to try something different.
I was having a conversation with a friend on WhatsApp and he said he thought this was a fair thing to do. “You’ve done your bit over the last 11 years,” he said, “now it has to work for you.” Then he said something that really hit home.
“The point is that if people don’t pay for stuff then eventually it’ll cease to exist.”
I’ve said this so many times about restaurants – use it or lose it, the time-honoured mantra. And it’s been true time and again: there are wonderful restaurants in Reading, not enough people visit them and then everybody is so shocked when they close. I’d always meant to visit, people say, or I wish I’d gone more often. Why shouldn’t that also be true of this blog?
Of course, if nobody wants to support the blog in this way and all this falls flat on its face it will be back to the drawing board for me. I’ll have to reduce the output on the blog, for starters. It’s currently weekly, but it hasn’t always been: if you cast your mind back to before the pandemic reviews came out fortnightly. Or maybe it will be time to do something completely different.
I know there will be a few people reading this and actively wanting this gamble to fail. It would be nice to show them how wrong they are. But I still think that for a review or feature practically every week, £3 a month – less than the price of a coffee – or £30 a year represents decent value. I hope enough of you turn out to agree with me.
Here goes nothing. Click below if you want to show your support.
Edible Reading 
Subscribed immediately! You’ve pointed me towards way more than £30 worth of food-related happiness over the last few years.
Thank you so much, this means more than you can imagine.
Subscribed and hope others do too! Love living vicariously through your writing. Good luck and looking forward to more of your writing
Thank you so much! Your support helps to ensure there will be many more reviews this year.
A quiet subscriber since we moved to “greater” Reading years ago, and while we’ve only managed to visit a handful of your recommendations they’ve always been great. Throughly enjoy all the reviews, even if we don’t always make it there, £3/month well spent
Thank you so much! I’m so chuffed that the writing is worth it even if you don’t make it to the venues, and hopefully it means when you do take a chance on somewhere it doesn’t waste your time and money. I really appreciate your support.
You have done a great job informing us of restaurants and pubs both here and in other cities. I totally accept that you should be offsetting your costs and making a profit. I watch a lot of restaurant video reviews on YouTube and subscribe to their channels. This costs me nothing but gives them a revenue from the ads I am forced to watch. Have you considered doing this?
I did consider it, yes, but I would rather give my readers an ad-free experience (your use of the word “forced” says it all!). Like I said in the piece, getting the blog ad-free will be my first priority with anything I raise from subscriptions.
Good luck mate! I’ll be subscribing
Thank you Alfie! That means a lot.
subscribed with thanks – both for the recommendations we’ve tried over the years, and the entertaining writing!
Thank you in return for supporting what I do Jenny! Here’s to another 12 months of hopefully keeping you entertained and finding you decent places to eat.
Instant subscribe.
I’ve been a regular lurker on your blog since I moved to Reading in 2018 and you’ve given myself and a great many friends countless wonderful nights at multiple places we likely never would’ve visited otherwise. My name is proudly on the founder’s wall at Clay’s thanks to dozens of visits at the old and new location, sparked by your recommendation.
Work has since taken me away from Reading but I still eagerly await each of your posts. I’m especially keen to visit The Moderation when I visit next, I can’t wait to try the chicken satay (one of my favourite dishes!).
Keep up the fantastic work and thanks for all that you do.
That makes me really glad, to hear that the blog has helped make happy evenings and memories for you and your friends. And I’m delighted that you supported Clay’s too. I highly recommend that satay (and the short rib curry, if it’s on when you go).
Not sure where work has taken you but you never know… does it have any decent restaurants?
If you ever find yourself up in Lincoln, I’d highly recommend a trip to Cafe St. Paul’s. It’s been my Lyndhurst since I moved away from Reading.
I haven’t moved away, and I’m still looking for a new Lyndhurst!
Subscribed. Your blog has led me to some of my best meals both in Reading and abroad – your Paris and Bruges guides, just brilliant. Looking forward to seeing what this new model allows you to do going ahead.
Thank you so much Sarah, especially for the feedback on the city guides. It makes my day to find out any of the guides has helped someone have a good holiday (the updated Bruges one will have Koen & Marijke in it!)
Depending on subscriber volumes it definitely opens up the scope for additional/different/subscriber only content. We shall see!
Happily subscribed! Thoroughly enjoy the blog and the obvious time and effort put into to each review, which is reflected in the quality of the writing.
Thank you so much Chris, that’s a lovely compliment! Delighted to have you on board.
Subscribed. My 9 years in Reading wouldn’t have been the same without its restaurant scene, virtually all of which your site has led me to. Even if I’d moved away and couldn’t follow up on the recommendations I’d still be a weekly reader for the writing alone. Thanks for everything you do and have done. Adam
Thank you so much Adam, that’s really lovely feedback – especially about the writing. Thank you for supporting what I do.
Best of luck with the venture, (I have just signed up for the full fat 12 month version). Your announcement narrative summed up the varying views well and I do fear that too many people expect something for nothing nowadays. The most powerful sentence for me is the one that reminds the reader that you are asking for a monthly contribution of less than the cost of a cup of coffee for your output.
Thank you so much Jez, both for subscribing and for this supportive comment. I do understand there will be varying views on this, and also completely respect people not being willing or able to subscribe. But I am very grateful for the readers, like you, that have chosen to do so.
Subscribed.. Looking forward to another year of interesting reviews. Thank you
Thank you so much! I’ll do my best to keep them interesting.
I missed the original announcement, and while I can understand the rationale am somewhat ambivalent having personal experience of a passion project which turned into a small ‘business’. It is quite a different dynamic IME and at least in my case indicated and presaged burnout.
Still I wish you all the best and may possibly end up subscribing, though having young children means eating out is fairly rare these days. As a sidenote; wordpress is rarely the cheapest option for hosting wordpress these days.
I do understand this and appreciate your nuanced comment. I’ve thought of this too, but I’m not interested in turning it into a business or making it profitable. If subscription helps cover the costs of running a blog that would be lovely. I’ve written it every week for years so I don’t worry that the burden of expectation would change that. Whether you subscribe or not, thanks for reading and for your thoughtful comment.