“When One Door Closes, Another Opens” — Alexander Graham Bell
Jon Ogg and I started 24/7 Wall St. on May 24, 2006. We had several hundred page views on a good day in our first year. Our only big break that year came in September when Barron’s ran an article about our progress. Pageviews surged to a few thousand the day the article ran. In 2014, pageviews for the year topped 125 million.
From 2006 until 2014, it was often hard for Ogg and me financially. Cathie Wood, now the head of Ark Invest, joined us as an owner. We have been the only owners of the company. We built a business to a level none of us could have imagined. Today, 17 years after its founding, 24/7 Wall St. has a new owner, Flywheel Publishing, a company with multiple properties and strong management.
As I write my final column as the 24/7 Wall St. primary shareholder, I want to thank Ogg. He has not been active in the business recently, but his friendship and commitment as editor and writer made an impact on the business that will continue. Due to his talents, our home page is still mostly populated with articles on finance, the economy, investing and public corporations.
Over the past seventeen years, 24/7 Wall St. moved from a purely financial site to one that runs news stories and covers the demographics of America: cars, food, entertainment, climate, the effects of violence, and history. The story count since we began has numbered well over 100,000. I wrote or co-wrote over 10,000 of these.
Every editor takes special pride in a few stories. For me, these include our articles on hate groups, the plight of impoverished Americans, the analysis of the struggles of black Americans, gun violence, health and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these stories helped advance the national conversation about these subjects.
Along the way, we established editorial partnerships with The Atlantic, Time, USA Today, MarketWatch, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL, The Huffington Post, NewsBreak, Smart News and Apple News. I would like to thank the management at each of these for developing the relationships.
The staff member who has done the most to improve 24/7 Wall St.’s prospects is Ash Allen, our current president. Many of our editorial and revenue strategies are due to his work.
Why sell now? 24/7 Wall St. is amid a remarkable growth streak after a year of difficulties. However, a standalone online publisher is difficult to operate successfully, at least financially, because it cannot share the operation costs across several properties. For 24/7 Wall St. to thrive, it needed to become part of a larger publishing organization. Flywheel is the creative and well-managed publishing company to which we pass 24/7 Wall St.
The staff of 24/7 Wall St. has done an extraordinary job. Most of the current editorial calendar is due to their critical thinking, collegiality, ingenuity and hard work. The same is true of the technology that runs the company. Most of our employees have been with us for over a decade. I have been proud to work with each one of them.
I want to thank my wife, Dr. Patricia Yarberry-Allen. She supported me as 24/7 Wall St. grew, prospered and sometimes worked its way through difficulties. She could have abandoned hope in our work long ago. She never did.
Finally, 24/7 Wall St. could never have succeeded without its readers. I send special thanks to all of you.
Flywheel has asked me to stay as editor-in-chief and chief executive for a time. It will be a privilege to remain as a writer for our readers and a coworker with the exceptional employees of 24/7 Wall St.
As for the future, David Callaway, former editor-in-chief of USA Today, top editor at CBS MarketWatch and CEO of TheStreet.com, and I plan to start an online media company covering global climate change from a financial and economic standpoint. Of all the subjects journalism needs to address, I cannot think of a more important one.
I am grateful for our time together and look forward to the next chapter in my publishing life.
Thank you,
Douglas A. McIntyre
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