As the publication hits its third anniversary, co-founder and chief growth officer Martin Lane looks back on a year that placed the outlet under unprecedented scrutiny — an experience he found equal parts rewarding and uncomfortable.
The outlet celebrated its third birthday over the weekend, which in developmental terms puts it somewhere between toddlerhood and early childhood. Given the number of frustrations Lane admits to having this year, that framing feels apt.
Psychologist Erik Erikson's model places toddlerhood as the stage where independence gets tested, and there have been no shortage of moments over the past 12 months that required exactly that.
Pushing the metaphor further than it perhaps should go, the broader industry is at its early-school years, which has meant contending with a few playground bullies along the way — though that, too, is part of the process.
After largely avoiding attention while building an audience during year one, the second year of operation brought a string of major stories and a significant rise in visibility.
Over the past 12 months, the audience grew by another 45%, bringing total weekly newsletter subscribers to more than 4,000. With an average open rate of 45% — well above the publishing industry average — greater scrutiny has followed naturally.
While the bulk of reader feedback is positive, the nature of the work makes universal approval impossible.
With the Therapeutic Goods Administration handing out record fines, companies entering administration, and others clashing over commercial terms, not every story from the past year has made for comfortable reading.
Even the regulator attracted criticism over a perceived inconsistency in how it handles advertising breach investigations.
It follows that some of those featured in coverage have taken issue with the reporting. That is, however, the nature of journalism.
That group remains a small minority. Most people in the industry are sharp enough to recognise a news story for what it is, even when the timing is inconvenient for them.
Another recurring complaint is the suggestion that covering a company amounts to endorsing it. The editorial position is that the publication writes for its readers, who have every right to know what is happening across the industry.
The editorial policy addresses this directly.
"We do report company news and product launches in order to educate and inform our B2B audience. We are editorially independent and do not endorse any company or product. The fact that we write about a company or product is not — and should not be read as — an endorsement of any kind."
Anyone who believes those guidelines have been breached is encouraged to make contact. Feedback is welcomed, and any stories found to fall short of those standards will be amended.
Some commercial support has come this year from companies seeking to reach the publication's audience with information about their offerings.
To be clear, these are not cannabis companies advertising medicines — that would be illegal — but suppliers to the industry whose products or services may help readers do their jobs more effectively.
In the interest of transparency, those pieces carry a Partner Content label so there is no ambiguity about the commercial relationship involved.
A further charge occasionally levelled is that the publication uses "clickbait" headlines to pull readers in.
That one, Lane acknowledges, tends to provoke a stronger reaction than most.
According to Wikipedia, "clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalised, or otherwise misleading."
The italics are Lane's, because he cannot identify a single headline in the publication's history that fits that definition.
Writing headlines designed to draw readers in and encourage clicks is, of course, the goal — and the subject lines for the weekly newsletter are arguably the most consequential words produced each week.
But the intention is never to deceive or mislead. The audience is too discerning, and commands too much respect, for that approach to be acceptable.
The other defining feature of the past year was hosting the inaugural Awards for Australia and New Zealand.
Lane has written separately about the lessons taken from that experience, but the short version is that it was the standout moment of the year.
One team member who has worked across other industry sectors was struck by how passionate, committed, and genuinely decent the attendees were on the night.
That quality is not universal across industries, and it has only strengthened the determination to give proper recognition to the quality of work being done at the 2024 ceremony.
The awards generated strong opinions from across the industry, but that scrutiny reinforced just how seriously the responsibility to get them right needed to be taken.
There is room to improve, but the level of industry support was considerable, and the aim is to build on that foundation next year.
A number of other plans are in development for the coming 12 months, though details will follow at a later stage.
For now, Lane is boarding a flight from the UK to Italy and Croatia for a long-delayed break originally booked before Covid. Both countries are currently experiencing a deadly heatwave — which is enough to make the blood boil.
