In the near future, you will see or hear ads on select Aftermath offerings. There will not be many, and if you’re a subscriber, this largely won’t affect you. Still, we wanted to let readers know ahead of time, because we would not be here without you, and we believe in keeping you abreast of how our business functions.
To begin, we are still, first and foremost, a subscription-based business. We always will be. Loading websites with ads and other intrusive nonsense doesn’t work anymore, to the extent that it ever did. Social media now rules that arena, and there’s no going back. Also, we want Aftermath to be slick, clean, and fast. That’s part of the appeal, and we’re well aware.
But money is tough to come by these days, especially as many regular people find themselves beset on all sides by economic hardship. Ads, we’ve learned via conversations with peers at other independent sites like 404 and Defector, can help supplement income and smooth over annual rough patches (seasonal subscription downturns, etc). In an ideal world, that bit of extra money will also bring us closer to hiring additional staff and growing Aftermath into something bigger and bolder.
Now to put it on concrete terms: We’re copying 404. They display a few ads on the version of their site that non-subscribers see—and no more. (You can go over there and look right now if you want an example.) We’re gonna do that. We do not plan to increase the ad load or push programmatic ads on subscribers; they’re already doing their part. As for when this will occur, we’re still getting it set up, so we don’t have an exact date yet. But we’re working with the same partners as 404. Moreover, they’ve assured us that, should an ad about AI or some other dumb bullshit pop up, we can have them zap it. This approach is tried and tested by people we immensely respect. We wouldn’t be doing it otherwise.
We’re also going to be putting occasional, bespoke ads on other free offerings—specifically, the newsletter and podcast (with the help of our podcast partners at Multitude, who also edit our shows). Again, these will be brief and unobtrusive. Additionally, we plan to be highly selective and transparent on this front; if we make a recommendation and it’s an ad, a) it will occur in its own section of the newsletter or show, and b) you can assume that we’ve tried the thing in question and authentically like it.
Lastly, we will not be advertising video games! Back when we worked at other sites, it always felt weird to see a giant banner ad for a game appear alongside our critical reporting about that game, even if there was a firewall between editorial and advertising that ensured we weren’t influenced by those holding the purse strings. The optics of it just aren’t great, so here at Aftermath, we’re not gonna do it. Simple as.
To sum up: In the near future, there will be a tiny number of ads (1-3 per page) on the free version of the site and occasional recommendations on the podcast/newsletter. We do not foresee the numbers increasing, because other independent sites have done this for a while and held steady, and our goal here is to supplement subscription income—not supplant it. Also, if this still ends up proving prohibitively onerous or irritating to our readers, we’ll just stop! That’s the nice thing about being small and beholden only to your audience: You can try things, and if they turn out bad, you don’t have to keep trying them.
Hopefully that clears everything up, but if you have questions or suggestions, feel free to sound off in the comments!
