Editor’s Letter: April
Dear readers,
This is my first editor’s letter and I really wanted to say hello and let you know why I’m beginning to write them. Here at The Know, we spend most of our time working day-to-day: we publish our daily newsletter, we produce fresh content for social media and always keep an eye on the news. It’s fast-paced, it’s energising, but sometimes we miss the opportunity to look back, and to share a little more of our behind-the-scenes stuff. And that’s exactly what I’ll be doing in this space. Welcome!
April has been a lot! We covered the biggest news stories, from Ukraine developments and the French election, to Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase and the ongoing revelations from the Partygate scandal. We also reported on issues that really matter to women like us: the Gender Care Gap, no-fault divorce, and the end to edited photos for advertising firm Ogilvy. We looked at the data emerging from some post-pandemic trends that are here to stay, like wearing less makeup and taking fewer sick days. And we chose optimism on World Earth Day, sharing sweet ways to celebrate the planet, in hopes of conjuring the type of energy we need to fight the climate crisis.
In a major ‘pinch me’ moment, we launched the US Edition of our newsletter with guest editor Sara Sampaio. That’s a supermodel and activist with 8 million followers (!) agreeing to contribute to our newsletter. It’s a big deal for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it helped us feel like a real-life, fully-fledged media company that people are beginning to recognise. The same thing happened at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, which I attended in the second week of April. That’s another letter in itself, but I met people who had heard of The Know without any link to our team, and we were mentioned in very impressive conversations about the future of news. It’s cool! But we only exist because of you. Without readers we have nothing, which is why we’ll always put your needs first.
This brings me on to one of the most important conversations we had in April: the cost of living crisis (and what we’re all supposed to do about it). We’ve chatted to you about the topic a lot on Instagram, where we found that 93% of you were anxious about the rising cost of living. We’re right there with you. It was crucial, then, for us to find some solid advice we could all use and trust. We partnered with our friends at Your Juno to bring you the first guide in our series on finance, all about coping with rising prices. If you haven’t yet, check it out, and keep an eye out for our next personal finance piece in May. Do you have any other money questions? Reach out via email to hello@theknowmedia.co and I’ll pop them on our agenda.
We can’t really discuss the cost of living without looking at our source of income: our jobs. And that’s led to many of us asking some important questions. Are we fulfilled? Are we paid enough? Does it feel right? We thought we’d ask you, and were delighted to gather your experiences in our careers survey. Thank you so much for that. You can find the insights here, and keep an eye out on Instagram and in the newsletter for some special announcements next week. You didn’t think we’d do a survey for nothing, did you? ;)
And finally! It’s not all about work and money. We take the task of helping you plan your free time *very* seriously, which is why we made our list of 100 ways to spend a long weekend. If you finish them, let me know. If you come up with some extras and want to help us write the next 100, also let me know!
I’ll round this off by sharing our final April guide, which is all about the benefits of doing things alone, and how to get started. It can seem scary at first, but as a team, we’ve each had solo experiences recently that have really fed our souls. Whether that’s walking the entire length of Madrid pretty much (looking at you Julia), venturing to a play (much sophistication from Fozz) or my solo jaunt to the Chvrches gig at Brixton Academy, we’ve left our comfort zones and not for a second regretted it. In the wake of heavy news cycles and the work treadmill, I encourage you to do the same. It might just be the headspace we need to appreciate the next few sunnier months to the fullest.
With love,
Holly
Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Know