Pearls and Irritations

It was quite a surprise when I noticed last week that we had posted so many articles over 13 years.

The 20,000 articles (listed here) include over 700 of my own. A selection of these, about 100, is now published in an eBook, ‘Summing Up’.

When we launched Pearls and Irritations I wrote all the articles and Susie handled all the production and administration. Susie said that she was the Pearl and I was the Irritation.

It has been a rewarding journey.

We owe so much to writers who were not paid but were concerned about the lack of informed and independent debate on key issues such as climate change, relations with our region, particularly with Indonesia and China, and growing inequality.

One other factor stood out, how ill informed was our White Man’s Media whose view of the world is framed by the propaganda news and views out of the US. Heading into the US presidential election we will see even more how derivative our media is.

When Pearls and Irritations began we had high hopes but few resources. Today, we have more than 23,000 subscribers. We receive more than 400,000 views per month and our social media audience has risen exponentially on Twitter (now X) and our other channels. Importantly, Pearls and Irritations’ articles are now widely read by journalists and opinion leaders in Australia.

To maintain our independence and the credibility of our voice, we have funded our growth and development on a reader donation model. We do not accept financial support from government or any commercial interests. Our contributors are our readers and writers, who still offer their considered articles unpaid, to whom we’re very grateful.

The need and opportunity for independent and informed journalism is more important than ever. So many of our mainstream journalists have been on the Washington drip feed for so long they are incapable of seeing the world differently.

But we are now entering a new era that requires us to consider how best to take the P&I platform into the future. Susie has to withdraw from her very active role. At the same time I have to reduce my own involvement. We are incurring additional legal and accounting costs to provide for new governance arrangements. These issues aside, we are also looking at some exciting opportunities to further expand our readership and provide additional content. Social media is an important tool to achieve future growth and attract a younger audience to support P&I.

We have had several approaches from media companies for partnerships. Rupert Murdoch has not made an approach!

We prefer to maintain our independence and point of view by growing our own business model from a successful niche publication into something larger.

We are actively considering how that can be done. It will require more resources.

We have come a long way in reaching 20,000 posts.

Stay tuned.

Visit the archive of our 20,000 articles below:

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