You might be surprised at how well indie publications can do. Look at Second Wind, they have a bunch of writers and video folks all funded AFAIK through Patreon.

SkillUp’s channel has done so well he’s hired on two more people to make videos and just launched their own site with multiple writers. In fact they just hired another columnist, all reader and viewer funded through Patreon (and directly through the site too, I think).

There are other outlets thriving in the indie gaming journalism and review space too, all most if not entirely reader funded. It’s working.

And no ads. I do want them to succeed, but, yeah.