From the Cover: Mike Devlin Says "We Built a Magazine for Women—And Fifty Million Showed Up"

Time is relative.

Either I have been travelling at excessive speeds close to an immense gravitational force, or I have owned this magazine for what is now one year. It’s one of the two – just not sure which – although, as I have a propensity to avoid physical exercise and much prefer a pint in one hand and snacks in the other, I’m leaning towards the latter.

However, yes, it has now been one year of DWC Magazine; you may have noticed, what with all the '1 Year Anniversary' things everywhere. It honestly feels like much more than that, because behind the sleek look, the well-written, engaging articles (well, there is that one guy who purportedly calls himself a chef, so…), and the immense growth, there have been more hours put in than scientifically exist – blood, sweat, and tears.

Who knew creating something popular was so time-consuming? Oh, wait – I’m thinking of reality TV, promising the world for little to no effort. Damn you, TV, for lying to us.

When DWC Magazine began, we knew we were onto something special. I just don’t think we knew how special. It was always set up to give women a voice – a platform – celebrating the fantastic, the adversity, and yes, even the mundane. Straight from the start, we were mindful to include all walks of life, all diversities, and not to have a bias one way or the other. This, unfortunately, meant some stories fell by the wayside, as we felt they were too preachy or politically motivated, or were simply trying to pretend they weren’t selling you something.

And therein lies the art of balance. No one can please everyone, no matter how hard they try, so we set up our stall straight from the get-go: just celebrate women.

We do have around a 5% male readership (hi, fellas), and this is perfectly fine, but we cater solely to you – our female readers. And now we’ve surpassed the 50 million readership mark (yes, fifty million!). I genuinely cannot thank you all enough; it is vindication for all the hard work we do every day.

On a personal level, a special thank you goes to Camille, who is the brains behind it all (let’s be honest – owner or not, that claim was never going to land at my feet). I just don’t understand the ins and outs of social media (admittedly, we do mainly avoid this – hence why our magazine is entirely web-based), SEOs, analytics, and all that that entails. But she does – and without her, none of this would have been possible.

We now look ahead to the next twelve months, and who knows what will happen. We have plenty of ideas, but they need implementing carefully so as not to disrupt that aforementioned stall we initially set up. We will remain free, and more importantly, we will continue to celebrate you, dear reader.

Join me in raising a glass to celebrate our very first anniversary, and I’ll get myself back in the kitchen to see what mess I can get myself into.

Thank you all, once again.