Despite the turmoil of 2020, Pearls and Irritations almost tripled in size. Perhaps 2020 was a year where independent comment and analysis was needed and appreciated more than most.
Monthly readership has grown from roughly 140,000 page views this time last year to more than 300,000 this past month.
This equates to an audience of almost 100,000 individual readers turning to Pearls and Irritations every month. This is up from roughly 35,000 last year.
Our growth as a community and a platform has seen a steady stream of highly appreciated writers join the ranks of our established authors. We have also been met with growing attention from the major news outlets in terms of mentions.
P&I has even had the honour of being translated by the Chinese publication Reference News, though perhaps the translation, Pearls and Stimulations, leaves a little to be desired!
On any given week you can find up to six people working to deliver P&I’s daily offerings and keep all the balls in the air. We are all astonished that John and Susie were able to forge ahead for so many years on their own.
2020 has been a most trying, yet wonderful, year, and we on the Pearls and Irritations team are honoured and astonished to be a part of this community. Built on the values of resilience and truth, I think P&I community is best summed up by an old saying of John’s: “Don’t complain. Do something about it.”
We look forward to next year and all that it may bring. Thank you to all readers and supporters of P&I and best wishes for a peaceful holiday break.
There will be no posts from December 25 – 27. However, we have prepared some enjoyable reading for the holiday period.
Callum has a honours degree in political science from the University of Sydney which examined the influence key players in Australia’s financial services industry exert over government. He is a sub-editor for P&I.
Comments
15 responses to “2020: a year in review for Pearls and Irritations”
Yes a big thank you too.
I come here because it offers a richer alternative than the mainstream junk food news we get today.
Australian news has become even more appalling in the last couple of years because of the Nine Entertainment takeover of Fairfax as well. That means most of our media services are stooges for the Liberal Party as it politicises everything it can get its hands on including the ABC. Without John Menadue and Michael West (and helpers), and the Saturday Paper, The New Daily and The Conversation we’d be kept completely in the dark.
I think more Australians are waking up to Murdoch’s News Corp strangle hold, and the other pro-American, pro-right wing, pro-Morrison propaganda machines that have the audacity to call themselves news services. They aren’t. Is Murdoch calling the shots? Is our government one and the same? And now with Peter Costello as chair of Nine’s board, a company very happy to hold Liberal Party fund raisers on their premises, I think the motto “independent always” that sits at the top of their newspapers is now a joke.
I hope to see a larger news service develop out of this initiative, something that gives a more balanced take on every day news as it happens as well.
Whoever controls the media controls the minds of the people who read it. Not because they cannot think, but because they are only fed what some people have decided is what they want them to know about.
Thank you Callam as well and let’s hope the next ear will attract even more interested readers. Big thanks for allowing relatively free and uncensored readers comments too, without filtering out inconvenient subjects that many other news services do on a regular basis to enforce their opinions.
May I also say thank you for providing a space where discussion on China allows alternative and often far more accurately informed views from people who actually do excellent research or know from experience something more about the country – not just the pro-American diatribe we get in mainstream.
This site also provides an excellent opportunity for anyone of Chinese heritage whether they live here in Australia, or in China, or elsewhere in the world, to have their voices heard and to say freely what they think of the current situation.
There are also many of us in Australia of different heritage, that hold a far greater respect for Chinese people and their culture, do not suffer from xenophobia, and hope very much that the current situation can be resolved out of mutual respect for each other rather than mindless belligerence and abusive talk that gets us nowhere.
Well done, guys. You are a great antidote to the Morrison-Dutton-Abetz jingoism and xenophobia, and bad policies!
P&I is doing an outstanding job. Really hoping that its readership and influence continues growing so ordinary people in Australia can question stories in mainstream media written to fit premeditated narratives. John Menadue and his supporters are doing Australia an immeasurable service. Thank you and well done ????
thank you, I appreciate so much valuable comment, context and analysis
I always read the comments as so many are valuable expansion and context for the articles
Agree completely. Exactly my sentiments too!
Keep it up! There is nothing like a considered alternative view of things.
I like Pearls and Stimulations.
Thanks for a really good daily feast throughout the year.
Yes, we need you more than ever.
Sir,
What can I say but “Thank you!”. For people who have lost trust in the MSM, this is an invaluable source of information and analysis.
Sincerely thanking you again,
Teow Loon Ti
Pearls and Irritations has been on my morning surfing list for years, but in the last twelve months content on the site has been particularly outstanding.
In addition to thanking John Menadue and his supporters, I also owe a debt of gratitude to the many knowledgeable and experienced commentators here, from whom I have learned immeasurably. P&I in more ways than one, has no peer in Australia.
Well done, Team. Rupert can’t compete with quality.
Well done indeed
Congrats folks.