"Thanks for commenting. You are spot on, we weren't profitable in many other ways. The time we were spending on Newsberry could, and does, bring more profitability on our other products. In our opinion at Wildbit, half of an anything is not worth something. We don't build half-projects, and we don't put interns to work on them. But for many, it's hard to turn away $75/year."
Great story, guys. Let's see more of these.
Totally doesn't make any sense. Idealist for sure.
Not all good decisions are based in objective reality. Never underestimate a gut feeling.
After all, something like a mailing list service requires lots of ongoing care if it's to be any good (deliverability, etc).
It's not idealist, as you say, to shut down a project that is a time and energy suck. It's idealist to think a busy company with 2 very successful, well-loved projects should "devote a day a week" to a project that isn't nearly as profitable as the others, and which nobody really enjoys working on to boot.