I literally laughed out loud re-reading my Year in Review letter from 2021. It’s a textbook case of first-year founder overambition. There was way too much on the plate for 2022, and as a result a lot of it didn’t succeed (because I couldn’t give it the necessary time) or just straight up didn’t happen. It’s embarrassing to admit these failures – the temptation to delete that article and pretend I never made those plans is strong – but that wouldn’t be real. The reason I started Zee Feed in the first place was because I didn’t think there were enough publishers treating young people with respect or being transparent about how media businesses work. So the piece stays up!
My reflections on 2022 are much more measured, but will probably still be cringe-worthy by the end of 2023. Such is life on the Internet.
So was it a slay or flop era for us? This is such an annoying answer, but it was somewhere in-between. Measured against January 2022 Crystal’s expectations of what this year would be, it was a flop. No shame in admitting that. But looking back now at everything that transpired, and how this tiny-but-mighty team of three (Jemima Skelley is producing videos and socials two days a week) handled it… You’ve gotta call that a slay.
Thank you so much for reading and supporting Zee Feed. We exist for and because of you. Here’s to another year together!
The Success:
Election 2022: Navigating how to cover a federal election in only our second year of business was… a lot. Especially this federal election, which felt especially chaotic and desperate. We put a lot of thought into how to show up with content that was necessary without adding to the noise and I could not be more proud of what we achieved as a then two-person team. Like, look at the Election Hub – it’s beautiful. We did that.
It’s incredible to know that Zee Feed helped young Australians a) figure out who they were going to vote for, and b) get clarity on the reasons why they would cast that vote. The latter is arguably more important; understanding your own motivations and priorities (while being bombarded with manipulative messaging) takes effort and self-awareness.
I think ‘Young Australia’ ultimately got the result they wanted, and to have played a small role in that is surreal. But it did take me a full three months to recover!
One More Year: It’s funny, in my 2021 review the financials sat in the ‘struggles’ section. Even though not a lot has changed – the media landscape is still generally fucked, bootstrapping still sucks, and Zee Feed’s financials are still very unstable – making it to the end of year two feels like a success. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be growing at a faster pace and get closer to financial sustainability, but I’m learning that ‘winning’ in this game is actually more about survival than it is about being first to a size or revenue milestone.
The finances didn’t shift significantly this year: Zee Feed is not profitable nor breaking even. But the shift in my perspective shift feels huge, and that’s enough to move ‘Earning One More Year’ to the win column for 2022.
Having said that, personally financing a business that’s not found the key to profitability yet is stressful. I guess Elon Musk and I have that in common.
The Struggles:
Why We Changed Video Styles: You might have noticed that we completely changed the way we make videos for TikTok and Instagram Reels – we don’t appear in them anymore. There is a simple but really sad reason for this: as brown women talking about critical political topics, producer Simran Pasricha and I receive racist and misogynistic comments, directed at us personally. After a particularly bad spate of comments around July, I made the call to remove our faces from the feeds.
This is something all journalists and online creators experience to some degree – others are subjected to a lot worse than we were. Some people will say it’s an expected part of the job, and that I’m being too sensitive or am not cut out for this work. But even blocking users or deleting horrible comments still requires you to read them, and in a team as small as ours it’s usually the same person in the video that’s doing the moderating. It’s not something I’m willing to subject myself to, or anyone who works on Zee Feed.
We’ve since developed a new style of videos that I really like. So far it is performing ok, but definitely not as well as videos of our faces had been. That is the most infuriating part – we’re penalised because of the way we look, because of the fear that lives in others. It’s a reality of life, but the realization still floors me from time-to-time. Anyway, that’s on racism and misogyny 🤪
Recalibrating Post-Election: The federal election was such an all-encompassing phenomenon this year – even the ‘I’m-Just-Not-Political’ folks got more involved usual. As mentioned above, I think a lot of young people were motivated to achieve a specific result: ousting the Morrison government. Now that they’ve claimed the W and politics has returned to ‘normal’, the appetite for political content and explainers has dropped off a lot.
We haven’t done a great job of recalibrating to that shift in interest now the dust has settled. Actually, a lot of Australian publications seem to be struggling to figure out the right amount, and style, of political coverage for their audience post-election and post-Morrison.
Looking at our five biggest stories of the year (below), it’s clear there are other themes coming through. Here’s an invitation for you: please, tell me what you’d like! Send me an email hey@zeefeed.com.au over the summer break if there’s something you’d like to see more or less of on Zee Feed in 2023.
Getting Married: Hear me out on this one… In October, I got married to my biggest cheerleader, Pierre, the most supportive, kind, smart and offline man. It was perfect and so special to bring together two families who likely will never be all in the same room again (interstate couple problems). I’ll cherish the memories of the day forever…
But the memories of planning the wedding while running a news publication in an election year? I’d like to banish those forever. The combination exhausted me to my bones, had me constantly on the brink of tears, and induced a thick brain fog that made even the smallest decision a battle. We couldn’t throw money at the problem to fix it, so the only way was to slog through.
The experience was an intense reminder about trying to do it all (don’t) that I will be taking very seriously in 2023.
@therealcrystaljane 2027 crystal will cringe at this & that’s growth tbh #femalefounder #sydney #dayinmylife #australia #grateful #reflection #ootn #vlog ♬ Coming Home – Leon Bridges
Top Five Stories of 2022:
- Iran Protests Are Demanding Justice For Mahsa Amini & Calling For Revolution
- Here’s How You Can Help In The Wake Of Cassius Turvey’s Murder
- What’s the ‘Real’ Theme of International Women’s Day 2022? It’s Complicated…
- The Indomitable Human Spirit Trend Is Kinda Cringe, But It’s The Meme We Need Right Now
- Why Soft Living On TikTok Isn’t Just a Trend – It’s An Act of Rebellion
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