Mumbrella is six – Now we’ve got a history
Today marks Mumbrella’s sixth birthday. Tim Burrowes has a progress update.
A couple of months back, I realised the way I look at my time with Mumbrella is changing.
Until recently, Mumbrella existed for me in only one tense – something I do. Nowadays, it’s also something I did.
At six years, we’ve now been doing Mumbrella for long enough that we’ve got a history. And part of that is that once a year, I offer you, our reader, some kind of a birthday update.
- Our first post: Welcome to Mumbrella
- Year two: Mumbrella is two
- Year three: Mumbrella is three – thanks for supporting us
- Year four: Mumbrella is four (and a bit)
- Year five: Why I’m stepping down as Mumbrella editor to help grow the business
And this year has been one of the toughest we’ve had yet. We’ve faced a couple of big tests, and have grown up a little as a business. More on the tough calls in a moment.
First let’s get the numbers out of the way. Google Analytics tells me we’re closing in on 50m page views. I reckon we’ll hit that milestone early in the new year.
Source: Google Analytics
Throw in the 1.2m page views that Mumbrella Asia has delivered since we launched that last year, and we’re tantalisingly close to that 50m.
And while we’re doing numbers, I see from the URL that this post will be our 266,772nd
In terms of subscribers to our free daily email, we’re up to 42,890.
On social media, we’re on just over 73,000 followers of our main Twitter account. And at the time of writing, we’re tantalisingly close to getting our 30,000th like on our Facebook page – we might even get there today.
It’s also traditional for me to share some detail on our finances, which up to now have seen us grow in turnover each year, but roughly break even because of reinvesting in the business. That’s no different in the last financial year. Well over half of our income is through events now.
Our Australian revenues amounted to just over $3m, with a profit of $47,000. But we managed to turn that into a loss by spending just over $200,000 on our startup in Asia which is now just over a year old.
At the half way point for this financial year, we’re on budget for growth in revenue and even, shockingly, to turn a small profit. I’m delighted to say that display advertising has seen something of an unexpected surge in recent months.
But, it’s not been an easy year.
At the time I made some bold claims about still writing for Mumbrella every single day. That bit didn’t happen, and jeez I missed it.
Internally we also talked about Mumbrella’s changing responsibilities now we had become the biggest marketing title rather than the challenger brand. We decided we wouldn’t automatically run towards every fight.
But I did get three weeks back on the newsdesk in June, which brings me to the first of our big, stressful tests, and a fight we ended up running toward anyway.
I was covering the desk while our editor Alex Hayes was over in Cannes covering the Lions Festival. He became suspicious of some of the shortlisted Australian entries and as we began to investigate, it became a campaign – and one of the most polarising things we’ve done to date.
We found ourselves calling out agencies and marketers who we respected and liked. It quickly became apparent that some of these questionable entries had come from agencies we were friendly with. But we couldn’t pull any punches.
It was the biggest test we’ve had of whether we could stick with the principles of writing for the readers and not our mates – even if it meant upsetting people we liked.
And we lost friends over it. In truth, it was probably the most stressful time I’ve had since starting Mumbrella. I was given the movie-style warning that we had angered powerful people. And some of our rivals attempted to turn it to their advantage, including a faltering attempt by the owner of Campaign Brief (who had previously been encouraging us from the sidelines) to persuade agencies to boycott us in favour of his own outlet.
It felt like an important issue, and the right one for us. But it was no fun to do.
We faced another big test on the Friday night before last when our deputy editor Nic Christensen stood up an important story regarding media agency Mediacom’s misreporting of TV numbers to a small number of key clients.
It was another tough test because Mediacom’s parent company Group M has always been extremely good to us.
Nic, Alex and I cancelled our plans for our various Friday nights, as Nic worked the phones with multiple sources while we prepared to send out a rare breaking news email once we were 100% certain of what we had.
The story was an important one in the industry’s interest, but again I had that sinking feeling of causing trouble for a friend. It was also one that was going to have major reverberations for the entire media agency ecosystem given that it would raise questions across the whole industry.
As we prepared to send the email and Nic said “I feel sick”, he wasn’t the only one.
But as we watched the emails being opened – and forwarded around the world – on our Campaign Monitor dashboard, it felt like we’d again done the right thing by our readers.
To be honest though, making journalistic calls is still the bit I find easiest.
This year the hardest thing has actually been facing up to the fact that we’re now running a business with a staff of nearly 20.
For me, it’s gradually dawned that I’ve got an awful lot to learn as a manager. After years where the most important thing is a deadline a few minutes away, projects have always been run off the side of a desk. Structured, long-term planning and project management have been a boring luxury.
Yet dull as it may sound, the biggest challenge we currently face is recognising that we’re not a startup any more. Our next phase of growth is going to be about building a grown-up management structure so that the company can grow. In recent months, half a dozen of us have been spending our Thursday afternoons in management training.
We’ve actually set down on paper what we view as the purpose of the company. It sounds a little obvious, but it’s this: “To help our audience in their working lives and careers”. It’s important though because it will remind everyone in the company that our job is to serve our readers first, and is what our team will be judged by. We hope that by serving this audience well, the commercial opportunities will follow, but telling it as we see it to our audience is what underpins everything else.
We’ve also started to think about whether our board needs to include grown-up, outside voices.
And my role will change some more. Having done a full year hands-on with almost every one of of our events, I’ll start to hand over a few of them. Alex is curating Mumbrella Perth, which runs for the first time on February 25. Nic has been curating the call for entries and early content for our PR and communications conference CommsCon which returns in March. And our chief reporter Steve Jones has been putting together the content for another event which we haven’t announced yet. Journos tend to know the topics and what readers want better than anyone else.
Meanwhile, there’s another gap in our capabilities. Because of our big reach, we’ve never needed to be terribly good at marketing.
But the danger is that as we continue to grow, our readers get sick and tired of us bonking them over the head with every event we do. These days there are a lot of them.
So we need to get a bit more sophisticated with our digital marketing, and for the coming months that’s going to take up a big chunk of my time.
We switched over our email service to Campaign Monitor a few weeks back. It’s fucking awesome. And I’m only just beginning to get my head around the intricacies of segmented marketing. (You may or may not have noticed that if you click on the bottom of your emails from us you can update what you receive from us in all sorts of ways.)
Similarly, we have some marketing opportunities if we get our retargeting house in order.
In short, part of my time next year will be as a digital marketer.
All of which makes for one of my less exciting annual updates.
I guess we’re growing up.
Tim Burrowes is content director of Focal Attractions
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Congrats Tim & Mumbo team. Looking forward to what the future brings.
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Transparency, honesty, hard work, you guys ooze credibility. Good work Mumbrella.
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Kudos to you all. Both for making it to six years and for laying it out for everyone to see.
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I remember reading Mumbrella a few days into its life when I was on holiday in Thailand.
At the time I was excited to see a real voice in reporting on advertising and media and also sad that even when I was on holiday I was reading about work.
Six years on I still read Mumbrella daily and to prevent being sad about working on holidays I don’t go on holidays anymore.
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Loved every moment of it.
Based on that numbers you can expect a quiet Christmas – enjoy the down time!
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Congratulations Tim, you disrupted B&T and Adnews, which were sitting ducks, with old-school delivery models and tired copy that pandered to advertisers and networks.
But be careful you don’t become a duck too – getting all self-righteous and preachy is often the first sign of feathers growing.
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Congrats Tim and the team on 6 six years!
You may feel sick about having to make those tough calls, but as readers we are grateful you go with your gut and risk alienation to bring us those articles. Thank you.
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Happy birthday, as bad as it might have felt upsetting your mates – you’d still have guilt in your stomach if you had written for them rather than your readers. You have to face the man in the mirror daily. And anyway…..if your “mates” getting angry at you for reporting accurately – you need new mates.
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In all honesty, I don’t remember the last time I read anything from start to finish. This is a great honest piece and an inspiration for many. To show vulnerability and the struggles behind success is what makes you more human to me and not just an email sitting in my inbox. Well done. I both admire and respect the team and its leadership.
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Well done Mumbrella.
Dedication to true journalism. Always to be admired.
Nic may have felt sick e-filing his scoop, but as a former journo I have experienced a different type of nausea when watching an important piece of labour-intensive, well-researched and justified investigation get spiked, just to protect mates and not “upset” advertisers and their all-important wallets.
So well done to you, and your integrity.
Just tidy up the typos. Its always a lame, cheap, too easy shot to be fired from your band of enemies – “look, they can’t even spell for shyte”. And all the hard work is tarnished by a bit of carelessness.
Six years, a couple of scoops resulting in devastating industry impact.
And still they try to sneer and smear with the derisive throw-away: “not bad for an aggregator”. You’re are having the last laugh there!.
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Tim, if you are being truly honest about your numbers today & have been in the past then something has gone amiss this year…. A turnover of $3m to result in a profit of just $245k (to include your loss in Asia – I assume from this you made nothing up there at all?) indicates a huge increase in operating costs. I hope you are addressing this as we would hate to see Mumbrella fold like so many small publishers before it.
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Great idea launching the event in Perth! We are often forgotten over here. Can’t wait to attend. Congrats on the last six years!
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Superb post Tim, had me gripped from start to finish.
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Hats off Mumbrella on taking a stance and not holding back. It’s definitely appreciated by your readers.
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Hi Bored CFO
Our strategy thus far has been to reinvest in the business in order to grow revenue rather than focusing on the bottom line. This year, that has taken the form of a large investment in Asia and continued investment in The Source, our subscription service which is now break even and positioned to grow into sustainable profitability next year. We have also launched new events which rarely do more than break even in year one but, again, we hope to grow in 2015.
That said, you’re absolutely right – our business is not cheap to run, not least because we continue to hire more journalists – and we need to continue to grow revenue while focusing carefully on our cost base. At the moment, we’re on track for 33% growth in this financial year. The bit we need to crack is not spending it all.
Cheers
Martin Lane
CEO, Focal Attractions
Just to get your attention Tim – any reason why you haven’t looked into this?
http://www.theaustralian.com.a.....7147771075
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Many happy returns on your 6th birthday – now blow out those candles!
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Hi Why,
We did see that one (for non paywall subscribers – the story about Qantas no longer supplying Fairfax papers to passengers) but unfortunately yesterday, unfortunately we simply ran out of time and resources to get onto it as there were other stories happening.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Thanks for sharing the financials and strategy – A bold and inspiring move for any business to do.
1. 6 years young, I’d say 6 years old – and it is far removed from a start-up, with most start-up businesses (if not all), they have an exit strategy usually ranging in the 5 to 7 year window….
2. I’d be interested in Why you guys get out of bed, surely it is to serve your audience, but more importantly it is in your different exit strategies, it’s not a job for life or is it!!
3. I cannot comment on the ROI, other than to say that you need to be NOW making a minimum return of 18% to ensure you are protected for any potential down turn or acquisition.
4. Keep to your core strengths, no other small Publisher has “properly” grown into Asian and made a sustainable business – Asia is in the too hard basket without strong local “on the fround” partners. ( directories are all but dead and 110% too hard to pull off in these digital times)
5. 18 staff WTF ? It’s always a tough decision, but at 6 years wise, you need to cull people, maybe look at 3 day weeks for senior staff, and drop 35 to 40% of the content writers over the next 18 months….or seriously look at which content writers are driving the most audience and keep them. Younger hungry blood under the watchful eye of a seasoned pro is surely the way to go.
6. 6 in Management training WTF, Management is the biggest overhead a business can lose, nothing ever good came out of Management training, even worse, you will all thing you are managers and stop doing the doing. Leaders lead and managers cover their arse and create polices – read the milkshake moment…
7. Managing cost is a given, growing the right revenue channels is the only thing to concentrate on – nothing else matter, all else is a distraction, protect, nurture and grow the cash generators.
8. Be honest with yourselves, anyone over 40 is a tad old for the Industry and should be used sparingly and gently shown the door (with appropriate compensation)
9. Reed has all but died so they won’t buy you, who are the next suspects, the issue is that the bigger players like you in the market as they are ALL learning from your efforts – wins and loses (and it is costing them nothing to gain from your adventures)
10. 42,890 subscribers, offer a premium content service and convert 15% of the existing subscribers at $100 to $200 per annum, with a hugely subsidised entry to one of your excellent events and you will make a cheeky 600k to 1.2mil revenue stream at a cost of about 100k
You have a unique opportunity – 6 years is a long time in a business and I’m sure that with an honest offsite meeting with wise counsel you will see a new strategy based on common outcomes…I will depart with this very good you tube clip http://vimeo.com/78809346
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@ Andrew
“you need to cull people, maybe look at 3 day weeks for senior staff”
Just don’t cull the pigeons!
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Hi Andrew
Some interesting points. However, I take issue with your comments about ‘content writers’. I remember you loudly walking on to the editorial floor during our Reed days together and asking why there were so many journalists ‘polishing turds’ and suggesting we outsource their roles to India.
I know you were only joking but others took your words to heart and a lot of experienced B2B journos were replaced by cheaper alternatives – with unfortunate consequences for the titles they worked on.
We don’t want to become a commodity – we want to provide high-value content that people can’t easily find elsewhere. And for that, we need great journalists.
Cheers
Martin
CEO, Focal Attractions
Martin as CEO of a media/ advertising publisher you should know the golden PR rule is don’t get defensive! Don’t you have better things to do with your time than respond to comments on Tim’s story?
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Hi Arthur,
So what does your post at #19 say about your time allocation?
Me – I do have time to lurk and (mildly) troll.
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18 staff and 6 in management training!!! WTF indeed. You couldn’t make this up. I applaud your efforts to start a business and invest in journalism, and entrepreneurship is all and well and good, but if after six years, your profit is this small, you should be seriously thinking about taking some drastic action.
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Hi Shocked,
Yes, we have six members of staff (including me) who have somebody reporting in to them. Better that we help them that than not, I’d argue.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I think you have done an amazing job and the Industry is now supported with decent thoughtful journalism and rich content for research / reporting purposes
In the dark days before mUmbrella Ad news was a better read than the ever thin B&T weekly (I say this with clarity as it reported into my portfolio for a number of years) rag.
Both trade publications missed the online opportunity and you guys have managed not only to take market share, but grow your revenues in what I was told a dead market.
Hats off to you all, you should be proud that you have built a business on passion, smarts and no suits involved….
It’s all too easy to hide inside a business, it takes real courage to go it yourself….
May you have many more years of success, as for the profit ….more will come as you need it….
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Hi Shocked,
You obviously did not read tim’s post – he clearly articulated the ventures that mUmbrella invested in – going into Asia, Encore, specialised events, training seminars, the source plus more.
I think this business needs to be applauded – like you I initially took a “tongue in cheek” jibe. Then I looked under the cover read the article and associated reference links and found a core of entrepreneurial ideas and passion.
Its all too easy for keyboard warriors to make remark and hats off to Tim for showing the industry the companies financials, and metrics – I don’t see many other businesses doing that .
Like the CEO states they are investigating in high quality journalism and have invested in many adventures with success and learnings.
A truly inspiring company and a blueprint of how to invest and grow – Yes, they could get more profit and with that they would lose the learnings they have and are making.
Ad News and B & T struggle to compete with their blantant grab for profit and interesting circulation/viewing numbers…..
I’d like to see a premium content service from mUmbrealla and also a few indexes to benchmark the industry.
Great effort from mUmbrealla and I was only joking about the over 40 jibe, senior management down to 3 days would be interesting though….
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The continued shift into the wider Asian market is an interesting one.
Report card for Year One would suggest it has been a success. Reputation and positioning has been very well established, and in terms of journalism Mumbrella is already head and shoulders above the press release polishing competition.
The real challenge though will be how to extend the brand into other more commercially rewarding ventures, and this is where it gets very interesting.
I am sure Campaign AP and others don’t worry too much about the MA website (which might explain why don’t fret too much about standards of journalism) as that isn’t where they make their money (and obviously isn’t where you make your money either).
So how – or if – Mumbrella breaks into the hugely lucrative Asia events and award show circuit will be key. As will the introduction of new digital products and services. A commitment to journalism is to be applauded, but for Asia at least, it isn’t going to bring home the bacon.
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“Be honest with yourselves, anyone over 40 is a tad old for the Industry and should be used sparingly and gently shown the door ”
Because life experience counts for nothing. For anyone wondering why the standard of strategy and briefs are so poor, there’s your answer.
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Dear Jimbo,
Most people over 40 have to all intense and purpose switched off as they have other life distractions, such as family and ensuring that they CYA in order to maintain lifestyle.
I do not see many risk takers once they hit you hit the twilight years of 40+ and this age demographic find it hard to keep up with the trends.
Surely it’s a young persons game aiming primarily at a below 40 year old wallet.
Strategy and briefs are at best vague. I summise that most people over 40 have not grown up with the Internet they have been dragged into it – kicking and screaming.
A bright hungry 27 to 32 year old will rip the pants off a stick in the mud 43 year old…I wish it was different as experience does count, however, I don’t buy it in this Industry nor many other Industries.
Usually, these wise experienced plus 40 year olds are living off their merits and are far from being creative, hungry and willing to take risk to learn or to profit
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Andrew there is nothing sadder than the 40+ person who bashes other people of the same vintage claiming they are irrelevant as a way of making themselves seem relevant and self aware.
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The idea of posting in threads with ones own name is to provide credibility, provoke thought and build discussions. I have no commercial interest in mUmbrella other than a personal admiration on how they turned an Industry around and gave them online channels of worthy note.
I believe there are many more things sadder than bashing 40 year olds to make Dent seem more relevant and self aware, many more sadder things.
I believe that people under 33 are the people who make change happen and people over 42 basically die in terms of new ideas.
My comments are aimed at the dearth of 40 year olds who just plod along and keep their desks busy by being busy. I say this with a wealth of personal experience.
I’m now at the wrong side of 50 with a number of successful start-ups in my cupboard and a number of special ( WTF , How did I get it so wrong) learnings, I am prepared to hold court on such things as “Get rid of the dead wood” or “fail if you don’t”
I do believe in entrepreneurial leadership at 50 plus, but I would not want to lead a team with anyone who is in the 42 to 48 age bracket, I would prefer to nurture to 25 year olds at half the cost, and with twice the energy.
The other paradigm shift worth considering is that many online businesses have been created on traditional business management principles and these are the ones that will eventually fail as the new emerging models take over.
It’s cyclical and I’m afraid at plus 40 unless you own the business or have a stake in it, or a god dam genius that has the energy of two 25 year olds and passion like Mother Theresa, then they should be removed, in a nice humane way…
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(“I believe that people under 33 are the people who make change happen and people over 42 basically die in terms of new ideas.” – Dent)
I am 37. I have 5 years left then, so better get a wriggle on!
Fortunately, I have just invested in a revolutionary product. Well actually it is a kinda packaging / storage device. It is made of glass and it is reusable… The plan is to revolutionise the dairy industry.
Imagine not having to go to the shops to buy milk and getting it delivered to your door step instead. Then (this is the clever part), when you finish your glass bottle of milk, you just pop it outside your door and a ‘milk man’ picks it up and drops off more fresh milk whenever you request it to be delivered. Great for the environment and great and convenient milk delivery. I am also considering an electric milk float to save energy too, for the milkman to get around in. (It is quiet too, because it would be an idea to deliver the milk early in the morning, when it is fresh and when there is less traffic, less busy on the roads and in time for breakfast…)
5 years to get this baby off the ground and then I will see you on the golf course monsieur Dent!
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I’m not sure age is the issue so much as demonstrating a commitment to continual learning. Media & technology is moving at such a rate these days the minute you graduate from uni your skills are out dated. If you don’t make an effort to keep up, regardless if your age, you will quickly become redundant. This applies to any position – CEO level through to admin. What’s most important is having the baseline knowledge & general intelligence to begin with. Sadly not everyone does!
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Now that’s a very good idea, and maybe you have to be over 42 to drive them, that way you create employement of purpose for the “oldies”.
add bread and fresh fruit and as a by product it will make the population more healthy.
Could be a winner, maybe offer free milk & delivery service for all schools.
It is obvious that you are one of the lucky few who will go past your expiry date, as a I said a few can still produce past 42, especially those that embrace Dent ideology.
I know of many amateur soccer players who refuse to play in the expanding Over 35’s divisions and still play all age, hats off to those that can still compete, worse are those at 50 who refuse to play in the burgeoning over 45 leagues.
A 5 year plan is a good length of time to get this going, and I’m assuming your exit plan will be to leave your desk bound job and be the inagural driver with cap on – plus branding.
We can also roster on Shamma, Jimbo, Shocked, Andrew, Cannes(d) & Pigeon head
For the over 42’s who struggle to get up pre-dawn you could instead of Milk re-jig the Milk carts and make them into Alpine Soft Drinks Carts….
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Congratulations and happy birthday.
I moved to the UK more than three years ago, but still read Mumbrella (nearly) every day, because it’s smart, useful, bullshit-free and often very funny.
Keep it up, champs.
*gentle fist to chin*
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