Where in the world will David Roth and his cardboard counterpart go? Indiana? Alaska? New Jersey? This week, Defector drew a winner for its Roth Cutout Sweepstakes, and we now have an answer for you.
On Thursday afternoon, we aired our own reveal show, featuring frighteningly detailed entrant analysis from our own Sean Kuhn and hard-hitting interview questions from our own Lauren Theisen. Watch the whole thing here:
First of all, thank you so much to everyone who participated in this. If you missed the explanation when the contest launched, this idea stemmed from Defector's Growth Committee as a way of generating revenue without raising subscription prices. The number of entrants exceeded our expectations, although we weren't sure what to expect and also most of us are anxious by nature. We had 1,550 subscribers make a contribution to the tip jar or upgrade their subscription between Sept. 9 and Oct. 31, the date range to be entered. Accomplices were automatically included in the drawing, bringing that total to 1,620 entrants. All together, we netted about $50,000, equivalent to around 700 pay-it-forward subscriptions for the youth. (If you are a youth who would like to benefit from one of these subscriptions, please email freeblogs@defector.com with the subject line "Free blogs, please." You will have to send it from an .edu email address, or give us some proof that you are in fact a high school, college, or junior college student.)
If you've read this far but haven't watched the video yet, hoping that you could just learn where Roth and Cardboard Roth will be going—OK, rude. But here it is. David Roth and his corrugated facsimile will be going ...
...
... to the goddamn Upper East Side of Manhattan. For those who are dismayed by this result, trust us: We were absolutely giddy with the thought of sending Roth and an unwieldy item on a three-leg trip to Alaska. This is how you know we didn't rig it. There were seven entrants from Anchorage and 13 from the Sacramento area—as well as one from Topeka—and we would've loved to see one of them host Roth. But roughly 10 percent of entrants were in the New York area, and everyone had the same shot, and surely the winner who lives near him is just as nice and lovely as the rest of you.
However: Just because the winner lives near Roth doesn't mean that Roth's trip will be direct. While it won't be an exact replica of Lauren's route in the video, we are already formulating ideas on how to make this journey circuitous and elaborate, and we'll be recording footage to share with all of you, so even if you didn't win, you can feel like you got something out of it. Stay tuned for updates.
