A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year To All Our Valued Readers

On behalf of The Public Apology, I’d like to wish all our valued readers the very best for a Merry Christmas and a warm and prosperous 2015.

I’m absolutely rapt to be leading this team of talented wordsmiths into yet another exciting year full of challenges and possibilities. My original buyer’s remorse upon impulsively spending $50 on a domain name in 2011 has long since gone; in fact, I now consider it one of the greatest faux-professional moves I’ve ever made.

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Some of our highlights in 2014 include:

• The January 2014 acquisition of indie cult sports blog The Sporting Regard

• The appointment/promotion of three senior editors: Sam Perry, Ben Shine and Alasdair McClintock

• The relocation of TPA Headquarters to Melbourne in March 2014, which saw the creation of two part-time jobs within Victoria

• The inaugural TPA Melbourne Summit – a two-day ideas fest involving all members of the TPA editorial team

• The launch of the TPA Live Podcast, helmed by Sam Perry and Dave J. Edwards, with special contributions by Ben Shine and guests

• A landmark deal with the Chinese government to breakdown the ‘Great Firewall of China’, thereby enabling our North Asian neighbours to access TPA content online for the first time

• The four-month overseas deployment of senior editor Sam Perry, charged with reporting on a range of US/pan-European sporting issues

• A 400% growth in Twitter followers and Facebook page ‘likes’

• Clear and definable market share growth/lunch-eating in the competitive obscure, niche sports opinion blog market

• Unprecedented scale and readership, including several articles that went viral and contributed to public discussion

• Celebrity endorsement from a range of sporting luminaries, including test cricket’s Ed Cowan.

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Of course, 2015 is looming as an even bigger year for The Public Apology (trading as TPA Media Holdings). We’ve got the TPA Sydney Summit coming up next week, where as a team we will examine our editorial strategy, address current challenges/opportunities, and outline our vision for the 2015 calendar year and beyond.

On behalf of the entire TPA team, a special thanks to you, the readers, for being a part of our story so far. We look forward to continuing this incredible journey with you all.

Many great returns,

Dave J. Edwards

The Public Apology chief editor and founder