Daily independent women's opinion site the Hoopla is set to cease creating content after nearly four years in operation.
In a story posted on the site this morning by editor-in-chief Wendy Harmer and co-founder Jane Waterhouse, They announced that the site in its present incarnation is closing.
“For almost four years The Hoopla has taken great pride in bringing you the best in opinion writing and the daily news seen through the eyes of Australian women. “Smart with heart,” has been our motto. Always independent. Calling it without fear or favour,” Harmer wrote.
“Since 2011, The Hoopla has published some 5,000 articles, 300 writers and more than 100,000 of your incisive and thoughtful comments – and has been very proud to do so.”
“We’re not quite folding our tent yet and hope you’ll see The Hoopla pop up in another guise.”
Harmer explained that the current landscape is one reason that the site in its current form can’t continue.
“The online media game in Australia is evolving at dizzying speed and increasingly becoming one for players with very deep pockets – often supported by overseas media networks who are able to absorb enormous financial losses for their forays into the local market. Often the content offered is from writers and interns who work for free; reprinted from other sites or blogs and, increasingly, material under licence from the taxpayer-funded ABC,” she said.
“That was never our game.”
"Instead, at The Hoopla, we endeavoured to find original material from the best opinion writers and pay them for their labours. We operated on that proverbial shoe-string budget with never more than a handful of paid staff (Kath, Tennille, Sofia, Ali, Sue), and we also did our level best to find advertisers who saw our many passionate readers as worth talking to.
The Hoopla launched paid subscriptions almost a year ago and Harmer said that people were indeed paying for their content.
“Our readership has never been higher – more than 373,999 visitors (UBs) so far in this month of March and with paid subscriptions growing by 20% every month.
“However, in the face of enormous and radical change in the online space, we are unable to keep operating in our present form. This is the reality we’ve been grappling with for some time.”
The Hoopla's younger women’s mag Birdee, edited by Hayley Gleeson, will continue to operate as normal.
The news comes as News Corp launches into the space with its own female-focused site RendezView.
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