We won’t sugarcoat this: iFanzine is in serious trouble.
As a small, independently-owned iOS gaming site, we’ve been hit hard financially by recent trends like the rise of ad blockers and a dwindling interest in traditional online banner advertising services among mobile game developers and studios. Selling and displaying ads is and has always been our primary means of generating revenue, so we’re currently finding it near impossible to make ends meet and break even, never mind turn a profit. This has led to us being forced to downscale our operation and let long-standing staff writers go.
The logical thing for us to do at this point would probably be to cut our losses and shut iFanzine down entirely. However, since we’re not quite ready to throw away the years of hard work that founder Ruan Shiels — and many, many others — have put into building and maintaining the site, we’ve decided to launch a Patreon in a last-ditch effort to turn things around. We’re not expecting miracles, but it would be nice if at least a few of our regular readers and/or the game developers and publishers we’ve helped out over the years with news articles, reviews, interviews, promotional giveaways, etc. could lend us some much needed support.
If our Patreon is a success, we will be able to stop stressing about plummeting ad sales and looming bills, and start focusing on iFanzine’s future instead. Any and all funds raised will be put straight back into the site and spent on speedier hosting, improving our design and functionality, paying our editor-in-chief a living wage, rehiring and hiring writers, and so on. Basically, if you do decide to support us, you’ll be able to see your money in action every time you visit iFanzine. A huge, heartfelt thanks in advance to anyone who even considers helping us out!