ooooIYKYK, ISSUE #oo36
We’re coming in hot on February 18, which is a significant date here at ooooIYKYK. No, it’s not just the eve of the apparent RS 5 (B10) reveal… although it’s that too. For me, it marks one year since the first issue of the ooooIYKYK Newsletter about Audi was posted to Substack. This site went live in coordination with that launch, serving as a more permanent and visually engaging companion to the Substack series.
WHY SUBSTACK? THE STATE OF ONLINE MEDIA
Publishers are constantly searching for more effective ways to deliver content to the people who actually want it. At one time, setting up a website was enough. Later, pushing content through social media certainly helped. The market has shifted since then, though. People are bombarded with so much noise in their daily feeds that even the content they want often gets drowned out by ads for supplements or eyebrow-raising stories about politicians they despise.
This was the landscape ooooIYKYK launched into at the beginning of 2025.
That wasn’t the only challenge. I was disappointed, though not entirely surprised, to learn how transactional the media space has become. Even longtime allies let me know this site might be seen as competition and that, as a matter of policy, they wouldn’t be sharing nor linking this content, even if their own focus was also building passion for Audi or car enthusiasm in general.
I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed. I was. The reality, though, is that the problems beneath the foundation of today’s media landscape run far deeper than simply those of us in specialty interest spaces. Money is tight — whether in ad budgets, sponsorships, or personal spending that all underwrite niche publishing platforms such as this one and others. Everyone is clawing for survival, so it’s hard to fault people for putting their own sustainability first. At least that’s how I see it even if it is frustrating.
So Substack became a way to accomplish two things. First, it allowed me to manage my own mailing list and send this newsletter directly to people who raised their hands and asked to receive it. Second, it provided a way to offer subscription tiers that could help monetize the site.
Paid subscriptions are 100 percent voluntary. Think of them as a tip jar, or a way to sponsor and show financial appreciation for what the site provides: the newsletter, daily Audi news and feature content on the blog, the ooooIYKYK Podcast about Audi, and now the ooooIYKYK Audi Archives — a growing reference library built to inform even the most serious brand nerds.
MORE TO COME
I’m not stopping with what’s been done so far, though this year also has to focus on making ooooIYKYK financially sustainable. If I’m going to devote the level of time and energy this project requires, I need to get more creative in creating value for readers, produce even more undeniably useful and compelling content, and find advertiser sponsors willing to help underwrite it.
Putting everything behind a paywall isn’t my idea of a successful publication, and I hope that mindset doesn’t make me a relic of a bygone specialty media era that no longer exists.
JUST THE COOL STUFF
Having worked in this space through the rise and fall of forums, the explosion of social media platforms, and now the rapid advancement of AI, it’s been fascinating to watch interest in the Audi brand ebb and flow. The brand couldn’t have been hotter during the forum era when I first began, when multiple Audi-focused websites made solid livings and Audi itself saw the value in these outlets. These publications may have been small compared to mainstream automotive media, but they were deeply focused, producing content that reminded people every day why they loved the brand.
Audi eventually shifted to prioritizing reader volume and follower counts. That’s a sound strategy, but it becomes a problem when it’s the only strategy. As a result, most Audi-focused sites are now gone or scaled back to forums alone. The remaining news outlets for enthusiasts often operate with skeleton crews, relying on volunteers or writers paid at commodity rates. Those sorts of outlets are valuable and serve a purpose, but the mission here is to be more creative and compelling.
How? By focusing on what makes Audi cool. Most people don’t care about press releases on new manufacturing procedures unless those procedures lead to truly exciting breakthroughs. The goal here is to educate, inform, and entertain, while also bringing attention to other notable creators in the space – YouTube creators or social media accounts creating substantive content. Done right, this will remind people just how significant and genuinely cool the Audi brand is — even in tough times, and maybe especially in tough times.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that Audi is entering F1 and launching a wave of new RS models. From that perspective, 2026 couldn’t be better timing for this site to hit its stride.
IT’S WORKING
Over the past week, I’ve seen the site really starting to come into its own. Sure, its social media presence is still modest by conventional standards. On Instagram, it’s still under 5,000 followers. But it reached more than one million people in the last 30 days, 4.3 million in the last 90 days and is adding followers faster than other larger players in the space. More importantly, even the social media posts are focused on informing — news, features, Audi Archive additions, and podcast episodes. Posting purely to chase virality or currying favor with the algorithms simply isn’t the priority.
On the website, traffic continues to grow. This past week included three days that surpassed the previous single-day visitor record set since analytics went live. Daily returning visitor counts have also exceeded the previous high watermark every day this week.
What that tells me is that people are beginning to rely on ooooIYKYK as a regular source for Audi news and information — and that’s the highest compliment I could ask for.
NEXT UP THIS WEEK’S NEWS & FEATURES
CURATED PODCASTS & VIDEO CONTENT
F1 2026: Audi R26 Shakedown First Impressions | Sam’s the Pits
Audi RS 3 (8V.5) Deep Dive: Performance, Tech, History & What No One Tells You | Emily the Audi Nerd
The Audi S5 (B10) vs. Everybody Drag Race | carwow
He Quit His Job & Shipped His TT RS from TEXAS to Nürburgring! | Misha Charoudin
Tribute to the B8.5 platform – AUDI RS4 AVANT | Auditography
ooooIYKYK AUDI ARCHIVE UPDATES
This story is the basis of an issue of the ooooIYKYK Newsletter on Substack. If you’ve got too much going on in your life and don’t want to keep coming back to this website just to check in and see what I’m writing about, signing up to the ooooIYKYK Newsletter is an excellent way to get this content coming directly to you in your inbox. Subscribe at Substack via the link below, and consider becoming an optionally paying subscriber if you want to help support the viability of this title.