The Rewind

Running an independent publication can sometimes feel like you’re trapped in a maze someone else built. But just like in the movie Cube, the only way to ensure our collective survival is to be honest with those trapped on our journey with us.

So today we’re going to talk finances!

While we’re not big enough to produce an annual report like our friends at Defector — if you’ve never read it, seriously, check it out, it’s a work of art — we do try to be as transparent as possible about what we’re doing with your money. And since we’ve got all of the numbers in front of us right now, it’s as good a time as ever to share an overview of how we did last year.

Here’s the high-level summary of our 2025 financial performance:

Of those expenses, $1,275 was paid out directly to our contributors (our consulting editor as well as our freelance contributors, who continue to earn $75 per piece). We also paid $1,000 to Lede to migrate our website over from our self-hosted WordPress instance to their proprietary platform, which is a one-time expense that shouldn’t appear again in the future. We are currently on a revenue-sharing model with Lede, which means they take a percentage of our revenue as a maintenance fee, and that works great for us.

On the one hand, you’d like for your indie publication to be self-sustaining without owner contributions. On the other hand, money is tight for everyone these days, and Certified Forgotten cofounder Matt Donato and I believe it’s important to have more active publications that aren’t corporate-owned. We could certainly cut corners if we wanted to; plenty of publications either don’t pay their writers or pay them a pittance. But we remain stubbornly and morally committed to our model, so we’ll continue doing it our way until we absolutely can’t anymore.

So if you’ve been on the fence about becoming a paid subscriber to Certified Forgotten, we hope seeing the breakdown of where your money goes might nudge you in the right direction. Certified Forgotten will celebrate its sixth anniversary in 2026, and we have no plans to go anywhere — but your financial support will help us determine whether we stay in our little niche or maybe, just maybe, see a little bit of growth.

Matthew Monagle, Cofounder
Certified Forgotten

While Scream 7 broke franchise records at the box office, many fans were upset that Melissa Barrera was unceremoniously shown the door for her comments in support of Palestine. Thankfully, it looks like Barrera’s career was more detoured than derailed, and now’s a great time to celebrate an actress who will be back in the spotlight before we know it. Thanks to Bee Delores for explaining why Bed Rest deserves its flowers.

SXSW has historically been a bit underrated when it comes to genre programming, but the hard work of the SXSW team — including Peter Hall, who sat down with us to talk about his debut feature Man Finds Tape last year — has really made it a can’t-miss festival. So with screenings underway, here’s our review of Redux Redux, a 2025 SXSW standout that should be on the radar of anyone with a fondness for Timecrimes or Primer.

Quick hits from around the world of horror and indie journalism.

Want more? Certified Forgotten also offers a weekly podcast series featuring some of the biggest names in the horror genre. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast platform of choice.