My name is Johannes Van Zijl, and I am the Managing and Editorial Director of IFLScience. 

I’m here to discuss an exciting yet essential evolution at IFLScience: introducing our new membership model. 

This change, grounded in our commitment to transparency and connection, marks a significant step forward in how we engage with science and our valued community. At IFLScience, we pride ourselves on providing engaging and enjoyable content that breaks down barriers between the scientific community and the public to bring the wonder of science to everybody. With your continued support, we have achieved just that through our many articles, videos, podcasts, e-magazine, social media, and virtual events  – so thank you. We hope you’ve enjoyed our journey so far as much as we have and that you’ll join us for this thrilling new chapter as we continue to provide top-quality journalism and share our love of science. But first, a little on why we feel it’s necessary. 

The media landscape has changed significantly in recent years, impacting digital publishers. 

The growing pervasiveness of misinformation further complicates the media environment, emphasizing the need for journalism that champions accuracy and transparency. Unfortunately, it’s often the need for quantity ahead of quality pushing publishers into a race we are determined not to enter. We are committed to creating content that not only informs and ignites curiosity, but is accurate, and that requires substantial time, research, and resources.  

Additionally, evolving regulations, and ever-increasing operational costs add additional complexity.

Despite these challenges, we are committed to investing more in our products and our teams to continue providing you with high-quality content to reach our readers like yourself. 

This is what prompted us to adopt a membership model. This new structure will enable us to continue delivering the high-quality science reporting you expect while reducing our reliance on the unpredictable publishing landscape and algorithm changes.

It empowers us to invest more deeply in our team and advanced technology to enhance how we communicate science to our readers.

By supporting us through membership, you help ensure that we can keep delivering the content you love, free from external pressures. As part of our tiered membership system, you’ll still be able to access inspiring content as a free member, but for as little as a cup of coffee each month, our lite access members will experience reduced ads and access to more articles and PDF downloads. Our all-access members will get the additional benefits of unlimited access to our content with unlimited PDF downloads, special events, articles and interviews, premium content, our monthly digital magazine CURIOUS, and all our podcasts and video content including bonus, members-only episodes and videos. We will also be launching The Vault – an enigmatic story repository tucked away in the secret depths of IFLScience to house our most weird and wonderful content – which will be available only to those with all-access memberships.

We will continue to deliver in-depth explorations of cutting-edge scientific topics, and a cleaner, ad-free reading experience will be provided for paying members. This shift isn’t just about maintaining our operations to sustain our organization; it’s about enriching our interaction with you, our reader.

We understand changes can sometimes be difficult, and I want to reassure you that our core mission remains the same. IFLScience will continue to make science accessible and entertaining, striving to inspire those “aha!” moments and bring you the latest discoveries in the engaging manner you have always enjoyed. This decision is fueled by our dedication to you and to science. We value the vibrant community we’ve built together and are committed to keeping our most popular content accessible to everyone. The membership model is our path to a sustainable future, enhancing our offerings for those who wish to join us on this journey.

Thank you again for your trust, enthusiasm, and engagement thus far. Every interaction you’ve had with IFLScience has shaped us and we wouldn’t be where we are today without you. Through our mutual love of the most awesome, inspiring, and – let’s face it – strange things that science has to offer, we’ve built a platform to entertain, educate, and spark curiosity about the world around us – and beyond. We now invite you to join us for this new chapter as we continue to explore the frontiers of science together. Your support is more crucial than ever and I believe with it, we can keep the flame of curiosity and discovery alight for generations to come. 

You can learn more about how you can support us with memberships here.

With gratitude and excitement, 

Johannes Van Zijl 

Managing and Editorial Director, IFLScience