Hey guys, Riverini here. Just to give a quick update regarding the recent EULA changes, our position on them and what changes are we putting in place to address the way said changes affect us.
It is no secret that a good chunk of EN24 runs on cold hard isk, we use it pay our writers, our editorial team, target callers, subscriptions, etc. A good portion of the isk came from the five advertisers we had on the site, each paying a sum of about 3 ~ 5 bil/mo each, rounding it to about 20 – 30 bil of income per month. Most of the isk is handled by our editor in chief Bobmon who pretty much takes care of the day to day duties on EN24 alongside great members like Salivan Harddin, Tiberius Stargazer, Amy, Gyrn, Naz and the rest of the editorial team. At any given month EN24 has about 10 – 20 members involved in various degrees of commitment to the project. Our official staff rounds out at about +40 writers. Currently, EN24 has enough budget to run the place for about four months without compromising our editorial capabilities. This should be time enough for us to adapt and implement sustainable long term isk revenue models like the ones we had in place up until today. Should the need arise, EN24 can downsize greatly to the point where the operation can remain self sustainable.
The announced EULA modifications changes a bit of the game regarding advertising on EN24 and the EVE Media in general. Given how much isk was involved in EVE Online gambling and the fact that successful companies do tend to seek ways to promote their services, it was no surprise that a good part of the EVE Online media (news sites, bloggers, artists, podcasts, streamers, content creators, etc) thrived upon the wealth generated by the ever increasing competition of gambling sites. These content creators will see themselves outside their comfort zone once the EULA changes take place, having to seek out advertisers pockets deep enough to bear the risks that comes whenever someone decides to support a smaller publication venue.
Unsurprisingly, these EULA changes benefit sites like Eve News24 and TMC mainly because they are established brands with a captive audience and with the ability, experience and traffic to switch their revenue model in order to adapt with the changing times.
Personally, I can’t help but express sympathy for our former advertisers, who in my opinion are hard working, honest people. The EVE-OH Poker folks have supported us for more than five years. The EVE Bet service was a personal favourite of mine since sport betting is to me one of the fairest games of chances out there given that the show-runners have no control over the outcome.
To me a big part of EVE dies with this announcement, on the other hand the recent anti Real Money Trading (RMT) operations against long-standing and otherwise respectable EVE Online gambling brands is a stark reminder that the evils of illegal Real Money Trading lurk where in-game industries prosper.
This Wednesday, after reading the EULA announcement and consulting it with the team, it was decided to turn off all the “chance based” advertising banners on EN24, as a show of commitment toward CCP Games rule changes. Later this week, we’ll be making an announcement regarding our new approach to in game advertising in a more affordable way that reaches beyond EN24.
One of my responsibilities within EN24 besides being the target of Salivan’s wry comments ^__^, is to make sure we develop new ways to support the site, either be via isk ads, RL ads which in turn are used to buy PLEX or the still on going EN24 / EVE Animated feature. One of the advantages of not having to be involved with the day to day running of a micro-company like EN24 is the ability to develop new business models and have them as contingencies to be used once the need arises. This will become apparent to everyone once we announce the opportunities we have for both advertisers and readers to take advantage of the audience EN24 can provide.
We thank our former and current advertisers for their continuous support, especially the ones who believed in us when nobody else did. To our readers we thank them for the support they have given us in the past years and the years to come.
– R
