One Hundred Not Out

By Dan Hutton on April 30, 2013 in News

And so, here we are. After almost eight and half years of toil, we have reached one hundred editions of The Beast. Who would’ve thought that two twenty-somethings from out in the sticks could knuckle down, build an innings, and eventually raise the bat to celebrate this most unlikely of tonnes? Not us, that’s for sure!

To say that we’re proud of this is an understatement, as it’s been a pretty tough slog. When we started The Beast, we had very little publishing experience but plenty of enthusiasm, and as it turns out we really did need it. We’ve had printers try to shaft us, competitors attempt to sue us, dog owners wanting to fight us, and yummy mummies (and daddies) seeking to silence us, but somehow we’ve survived.

A number of other publications have come onto the scene and tried to poach our advertisers and put as out of business, but so far we have been able to see them all off and grow as a result. Given that some of the competing publications have come from big companies including News Limited and Sensis, this is something we’re particularly proud of.

When we started The Beast, it was just forty pages in size and we printed a mere 10,000 copies, all of which were distributed through local retail outlets. Over the years we’ve grown considerably and we now print and distribute over 62,000 copies each month, 55,000 of which are mailbox dropped with the remainder distributed through local retail outlets.

In 2010 we decided to build a decent website with an e-newsletter to accompany it. While this nearly killed me, it’s been a successful little accompaniment to the print magazine. We’ve even gone as far as to develop a little iPhone/iPad app so that those unfortunate souls who are forced (for whatever reason) to leave the Eastern Beaches can still flick through The Beast wherever in the world they may be (to download it just search for ‘The Beast Magazine’ in the Apple App Store).

Of course, we couldn’t have got this far without the help of our contributors, photographers, advertisers, distribution staff, printers, celebrities who’ve appeared on the cover, and, of course, our loyal readers. I should probably mention our girlfriends, Georgie and Cassie, here as well, because they have to put up with more of our shit than anyone else!

In saying all that, we’re not planning on hanging up the boots just yet, so it’s back to business as usual here at The Beast until we get to blow our trumpet again in fifty editions time (or possibly when we hit the 10-year milsestone). Thanks for continuing to read our little snapshot of Eastern Beaches life each month and proving to us that print is still both a viable and valuable medium of communication in our local community!