8-Year-Old Prominent Ethereum Media Outlet Announces Closure Due to EF Ending Funding

BlockBeats News, January 2nd, Evan Van Ness, founder of the Ethereum weekly newsletter called Week in Ethereum News (WiE), announced on social media that, "Due to a conversation earlier this year with Ethereum Foundation (EF) leadership, I am announcing the end of this newsletter as they communicated that they see no value in continuing Week in Ethereum News."

In 2024, WiE received very little funding support from the Ethereum Foundation. While this support was mostly symbolic, the EF leadership chose to cut off this minimal support, making it clear that WiE would cease immediately.

The withdrawal of support by the Ethereum Foundation was a clearer message than any other that WiE's time had come.

Week in Ethereum News had its moments. Over the years, at conferences, many developers have told me that WiE influenced their Solidity or security career. They often mentioned that this newsletter led them to decide to buy ETH. At one point, this longstanding newsletter was the primary source of Ethereum news for most.

Unfortunately, WiE failed to find a sustainable business model. Selling ads and sponsorships was difficult as marketing directors did not value developers. I hold my content to a high standard, but doing it profitably was simply too time-consuming."

In response to this, Lukas Schor, co-founder of Safe, said, "Today I learned that the Ethereum Foundation (EF) spent $135 million in 2023 but turned stingy when it came to funding the best technical newsletter in the ecosystem (maybe with other background reasons unknown to me). Nonetheless, thanks Evan Van Ness, your work has been the highlight of my every Saturday for these past years."