Introduction
As part of our efforts to maintain full transparency within our operation, it has been decided that every year, the chief officer of Anime Herald, LLC must compile an annual within 8 weeks of the end of the fiscal year. This document will serve to outline our finances, as well as our performance over the course of the year.
For purposes of reporting, our fiscal year runs from April 1, 2022, through Mar 31, 2023.
Current Finances
As of May 11, 2023, Anime Herald has $2,447.90 in our checking account. Of this, $600 is currently set aside for articles that have been commissioned, and $600 is earmarked for editors to work on said articles.
Income
In our fiscal year, Anime Herald posted $3,737.43 in revenues. The breakdown is as follows:
- Patreon: $3,668.61
- Ko-fi: $12.00
- TeePublic (Merchandise): $41.00
- Interest: $15.82
Our current biggest driver remains Patreon, which brought in an average monthly revenue of $305.71 per month, following fees and taxes.
Expenses
Invoices
The primary driver of costs came from invoices. This category includes payments to writers and editors for articles, as well as to the Editor-In-Chief for a $50/month salary.
Until we reach break even, the Editor-in-Chief will remain a salaried employee, who does not collect invoices for editorial or written work. As such, features like Anime Herald’s Anime Boston coverage, and the publication’s interview with Mark Reyes incurred zero additional costs.
For the fiscal year, Anime Herald posted $2,873.70 in costs, which were paid out via the Anime Herald bank account.
Infrastructure
Our second largest cost came from our infrastructure. This includes our web hosting, domain names, and services that are required to operate in a modern environment, such as backups and server management. The cost breakdown is as follows:
- Web Hosting: $633.60
- Runcloud Server Management: $150
- Blogvault Daily Backups: $149
Our domain renews this year.
In total, we paid $932.60 in infrastructure costs or $77.71 per month. This was not paid for using the Anime Herald bank account; rather, it was paid using chief officer Samantha Ferreira’s personal funds.
Taxes and Fees
To do business in Rhode Island, there is a fixed cost of $400, paid directly to the state. To help ensure that we remain in compliance with all regulations, the organization employs a Registered Agent ($125/year) and an accountant ($325/year).
In total, we paid $850 in taxes and fees related to doing business in the state of Rhode Island. As such, we remain in good standing with the state.
These fees were paid using chief officer Samantha Ferreira’s personal funds.
Tooling
Anime Herald employs the use of three paid tools. Previously, we had only held Yoast and EWWW, as email costs were negligible.
Due to issues related to our previous email provider, Anime Herald’s email domain was temporarily blacklisted by domain services. To rectify this, we shifted our email services to Google Workspaces, which worked with the major MX blacklist maintainers to restore our reputation and remove us from automated spam filters and blocking.
As such, our updated costs for fiscal 2022 were as follows:
- Google Workspaces: $267.29
- EWWW.io Image Optimizing Service: $84.96
- Yoast SEO Premium: $84.74
In total, we paid $436.99 for tooling.
Of these, Google Workspaces were paid using Anime Herald’s accounts, while EWWW and Yoast were funded using chief officer Samantha Ferreira’s personal funds.
Rebranding Costs
In late fiscal 2022, Anime Herald, LLC began work on a two-phase rebranding campaign. The organization hired Katy Castillo to design a new logo and handle graphic design work for our then-new merchandise line. Total costs for both came to $600.
Miscellaneous Expenses
Anime Herald, LLC recorded two major “miscellaneous” expenses over the course of fiscal 2022. Late in the fiscal year, the organization made a one-time donation of $25 to The Trevor Project. This was paid using the Anime Herald accounts.
Otherwise, the organization paid a fee of $0.52 on all of our PayPal payments received, which totaled $6.24. The PayPal costs were taken directly on payment receipt as a service fee.
Total miscellaneous costs for the year totaled $31.24
Totals
For Fiscal 2022, Anime Herald, LLC saw $5,724.53 in total costs. Of these, $3,172.23 were paid for directly, using Anime Herald’s accounts. $2,552.30 were paid using Samantha’s personal funds.
Against earnings of $3,737.43, Anime Herald recorded a total loss of $1,987.10, this is an adjusted monthly shortfall of $165.59.
To break even under our current parameters, Anime Herald must raise $478 per month after fees and taxes are deducted by Patreon. As such, we are placing our current break-even goal at $500 USD, which will afford us $22 per month as a buffer.
If we were to pay Samantha per article, instead of on a salaried basis, we will require an increase to $650 per month.
Challenges
As of now, earning funds through merchandise remains a challenge, as it requires a buy-in of artwork, as well as graphic design work to properly composite. While we do see merchandise as a viable and inherently valuable avenue for us, we will evaluate how we want to handle this once we complete our rebranding process.
Plans for Fiscal 2023
Rebranding
In Fiscal 2023, Anime Herald plans to continue our rebranding process, which will include a redesign of Anime Herald’s website. This is something that we’ve needed to do for several years, as we have received complaints from readers about controls failing, and the general slowness of the experience in general. Moreover, the system we are using is needlessly heavy, and places heavy strain on our infrastructure during times of heavy traffic.
We will be working with Katy Castillo to handle this over the fiscal year. This will have a large, fixed cost, but we anticipate that it will lead to major improvements upon completion.
Income
At the moment, Anime Herald is exploring all avenues for earning revenues that do not include the following:
- Banner advertisements
- Sponsored articles
We remain committed to ensuring that Anime Herald remains an online magazine that does not require an ad blocker as a ticket to an ideal reading experience. Moreover, editor-in-chief Samantha Ferreira stands behind our content and our integrity, and will not make moves to endanger the reputation of either.
Other
We are re-evaluating our publishing strategy, to determine the best days to release content. We will be polling our patrons and readers about this during the week of May 15, 2023.
Anime Herald is exploring other media and avenues for publication and sale, at this point. However, details will not be forthcoming on these explorations until late Fiscal 2023/early Fiscal 2024.
Our abbreviated quarterly report for Spring 2023 will be due by July 31, 2023.
