Your feedback, 7 months later: The next steps for MXSW

Last December, more than 6,000 of you took the time to fill out an online survey about the Mouth by Southwest website and newsletter. That’s a lot of opinions – and a lot of good ideas. Honestly, more than I could put into place all at once.

So I didn’t try to.

Phase 1: What changed on Jan. 1

The first round of changes rolled out at the start of the year, and if you’ve been reading since then, you’ve already seen some major ones, including:

• A new logo
• A redesigned website
• A redesigned newsletter
• A calendar of upcoming food & drink events in every newsletter
• A shift away from publishing every single weekday

That last one probably deserves a number, since I know some of you have been wondering. Through July, I’ve averaged four newsletters a week – not five, but not a trickle either.

Seven months later

Seven months is enough time for me to see what actually works and what just sounded good on paper. Some things clearly landed. A few others didn’t – and by now, most of those have already faded away without me needing to make a big announcement about it.

That kind of ongoing tinkering is the point. This was never meant to be a one-and-done redesign; it’s meant to keep moving in the direction you told me you wanted.

So if you had suggestions you haven’t yet seen, hang on…

Phase 2 starts now

Which brings me to the next round of changes you asked for.

The biggest one – and probably the No. 1 request I heard back in December – is this: fewer stories about upcoming restaurants will sit behind the paywall. I heard you loud and clear on that one.

Another much-requested change to look for: more in-depth posts, like Monday’s story about the closing of Old Town Tortilla Factory. To put that in perspective: The top post in the newsletter has typically run 125-150 words. Monday’s ran 428. That’s not quite a full “deep dive” yet (though some of those are coming), but it’s a lot more information.

There are also some new features I plan to roll out in the second half of this year. No big reveal here – they’ll just start popping up here and there as they’re ready.

As always, thanks for reading, and thanks for telling me what you actually want from MXSW.