Quick answer: Cubed News makes money through clearly labelled advertising, sponsored content and disclosed affiliate arrangements. These fund our journalism, but they never influence what we report — our coverage is never for sale. This page explains each revenue source and the wall we keep between money and editorial. Contact us with any questions.
Key takeaways
- Revenue sources: advertising, sponsored content and disclosed affiliate arrangements.
- Why it matters: transparency about funding is part of trustworthy journalism.
- The firewall: commercial work never shapes our reporting or conclusions.
- Disclosure: paid and affiliate content is labelled per the FTC endorsement guidelines.
- What we won’t do: sell coverage, or sell undisclosed or disguised paid links.
Why we explain our funding
Readers deserve to know how the publication they rely on pays its way. Being open about revenue is not a legal footnote for us — it is part of earning trust. When you understand how Cubed News makes money, you can judge our journalism with full context and see for yourself that our funding and our reporting are kept apart. This page sets that out plainly.
Independent journalism has to be paid for somehow, and every funding model carries its own pressures. Rather than pretend those pressures do not exist, we prefer to name our revenue sources openly and explain the safeguards that stop them influencing our work. We think readers are more than capable of holding two ideas at once: that a publication needs income to survive, and that its reporting can still be independent — provided the two are kept firmly apart and the arrangement is disclosed. This page is our attempt to be worthy of that trust.
Advertising
We sell advertising — display placements and campaign sponsorship — to brands and organisations that want to reach our readers. Advertising is clearly marked and sits beside, never inside, our journalism. Advertisers buy visibility to our audience; they do not buy influence over our coverage. Which stories we report and how we report them is never affected by who advertises with us.
To make that concrete: our editorial team does not consult a list of advertisers before deciding what to cover, an advertiser cannot pull a placement to punish unfavourable reporting and expect the reporting to change, and no advertiser is given a heads-up about coverage that concerns them. Advertising sales and editorial decisions are handled as separate functions precisely so that neither can lean on the other. That separation is the reason advertising can fund our work without compromising it.
Sponsored content
We also publish sponsored content: articles funded by a brand and written in their voice, always labelled as sponsored so no reader mistakes them for independent reporting. Sponsored articles are a legitimate way for organisations to tell their story, and clear labelling is what keeps them honest. They are produced and reviewed separately from our newsroom’s editorial work.
It is worth stating plainly what sponsored content is not: it is not a way to buy our editorial opinion. A brand pays for the space and the chance to make its own case, clearly marked as such — not for our reporters to endorse it. We still check sponsored articles for basic accuracy and decline claims that would mislead or harm readers, because our name appears on the page too. The result is a format that is commercially useful to the sponsor and honest with the reader at the same time.
Affiliate arrangements
Some articles contain affiliate links, where we may earn a small commission if you buy through them at no extra cost to you. When we use them, we say so, in line with our affiliate disclosure. Affiliate income never determines our recommendations or our reporting; we include such links only where they are genuinely relevant, and their presence does not change what we would otherwise say.
The wall between money and journalism
The single most important thing on this page is this: our revenue and our reporting are kept strictly separate. Advertisers, sponsors and affiliate partners have no say over editorial decisions, no preview of coverage about them, and no ability to buy favourable stories. Our coverage is never for sale, and we do not sell undisclosed or disguised paid links. This firewall is what makes both our journalism and the commercial placements around it worth trusting.
A firewall only means something if it holds under pressure, so it works in the awkward direction too: we will report a legitimate story even when the subject happens to be a commercial partner, and we will decline to soften or bury coverage as a favour. If a conflict of interest is unavoidable, we disclose it rather than hide it. None of this is a burden we merely tolerate — it is the asset that makes our audience worth reaching and our journalism worth reading, which is why we guard it deliberately rather than by accident.
How we label commercial content
- Advertising is visibly marked as advertising.
- Sponsored articles carry a clear “sponsored” label.
- Affiliate links are disclosed within the relevant article.
- All of this follows the FTC endorsement guidelines.
What we will not do for money
- Sell editorial coverage or the outcome of a story.
- Publish paid content without a clear label.
- Sell undisclosed or disguised paid links.
- Let a commercial relationship suppress or soften legitimate reporting.
- Run advertising or sponsorship that would mislead or harm our readers.
Cubed News is an independent news publication run by a named editorial team under a published editorial policy; you can read more about us and see who we are on our team page. Our commercial practices follow the FTC endorsement guidelines and our affiliate disclosure, and editorial decisions remain entirely independent of revenue.
Questions about our funding
If anything here is unclear, or you want to discuss advertising, sponsored content or a partnership, contact us through our contact page or email partners@cubednews.com. You can also read our advertising disclosure for more detail on how paid content is labelled. We take questions about our funding seriously, because being able to answer them openly is exactly what separates a publication readers can trust from one they cannot — so please do ask if anything is unclear.
Frequently asked questions
How does Cubed News make money?
Through clearly labelled advertising, sponsored content and disclosed affiliate arrangements. These fund our journalism without influencing it.
Does advertising affect your reporting?
No. Advertisers buy visibility, not influence. Our coverage is never for sale and is kept strictly separate from commercial work.
What are affiliate links?
Links where we may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. We disclose them per our affiliate disclosure.
Can a company pay you for favourable coverage?
No. We do not sell coverage. Paid options such as sponsored content and advertising are always labelled and separate from journalism.
How do you label paid content?
Advertising is marked as advertising, sponsored articles carry a sponsored label, and affiliate links are disclosed — all following the FTC guidelines.
Do you sell links?
We do not sell undisclosed or disguised paid links. Any commercial links appear only in clearly labelled placements.
Where can I read more about your disclosures?
See our advertising disclosure and affiliate disclosure, or ask via our contact page.