New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s indictment on federal corruption charges in September has kept local news outlets busy. And for at least one, the work is paying off.
In Hell Gate NYC’s second annual report, published on Friday, the worker-owned New York City news outlet said its subscription revenue increased by 8% in September, bringing Hell Gate’s monthly recurring revenue to $42,000. “Even if our revenue doesn’t go up at all over the next 12 months, we’ll make more than half a million dollars from subscriptions,” the report’s authors write. “If things continue along this trajectory, we’ll be ecstatic. They probably won’t continue exactly this way (how many times in a fiscal year can the mayor get indicted?) but we’re tentatively optimistic that we are on a path toward consistently faster growth.”
Hell Gate, which launched in 2022, attributes September’s growth to its hard paywall and a website redesign that made subscribing easier. Hell Gate has 5,368 paid subscribers, along with 20,840 subscribers to its free biweekly newsletter; and 19,856 subscribers to its free daily morning newsletter.
Over the last year, Hell Gate reports, it received more than $300,000 in philanthropic funding and has made some advertising revenue, though the latter is “not likely to ever be a significant source of support.”
Hell Gate isn’t profitable yet by its own numbers in the report. Operating costs average out to about $59,000 per month, and the majority of spending goes toward paying the worker-owners’ salaries and benefits and paying freelancers.
“We made the decision to create a benefits structure that we think other, far better-resourced media companies (and indeed, all companies) should offer workers: Hell Gate pays for 100 percent of the health insurance premiums for all staffers,” the report’s authors write. “It also pays for half of the premiums of staffers’ family members. Some of us are on our partners’ plans, which saves us some money, but Hell Gate still spends about $3,700 a month on health care, dental, and vision premiums.”
Hell Gate’s six full-time journalists and its business manager each earn $5,000 a month. In January, the staff gave themselves raises, increasing their annual salaries from $48,000 to $60,000. The report says they plan to raise their salaries again next year.
Find the full report here.
