Wow. What. a. year. This was the year that we truly became Her Campus Media. And it feels really, really good.

We began 2019 with pie-in-the-sky dreams for our 10th birthday year and the last year of the decade.

We end 2019 closing out a record-breaking year with a powerful, authentic, unmatched portfolio.

Surely, this year was notable for our acquisitions, and the incredible brands and team members we welcomed to the HCM family with College Fashionista, Spoon University, and the Lala. And we'll get to those in a bit. But more so than anything, these acquisitions are signals of the strength, sustainability, and steadfastness of the core brands and infrastructure we had already created and continue to build upon.

The media headlines aren't pretty these days--layoffs, closures, shutdowns, mergers--signs of a content bubble seemingly burst, or at least pin-pricked and on the road to deflating.

Yet somehow, we had an up year. In fact, we had our tenth up year. And not just an up year, a really up year. Where we grew revenues significantly, we beat our own record for largest single contract, then beat it again; where we launched new properties (@her20s), took our events to new cities (hello Her Conference LA and College Marketing Summit Boston), made our benefits richer, our capabilities wider, our staff bigger and our list of people-who-haven't-heard-of-us smaller; where we published the second edition of our book, majorly scaled our InfluenceHer Collective and Campus Trendsetter members, created award-winning designs, developed new best-in-class software, inaugurated our first class of HC Hall of Fame-ers, welcomed Jessica Alba to the Her Conference stage, were recognized by Forbes, put out noteworthy content packages, and, oh yeah, produced a massive 20’x20’ ASMR foot maze to simulate the shaving experience, complete with a furry wall and a pool noodle tunnel.

So... what gives? How does this make sense? Why are we, in all seriousness, doing so well?

Well for one, it's about not getting comfortable, or too confident, or assuming we have it all figured out--yes, we just cited some of our many successes of this year, but in the very next thought, the very next breath, we will emphasize that we have to keep working and pushing and striving and being strategic and smart and thoughtful every single day just like we have for the past ten years in order to keep this going.

But by building our business the way we’ve chosen to, we have continued to not just evade the maladies of this industry, but to in fact counteract them.

We Are Profitable
Simply put, having a business model that makes financial sense, where we make more money than we spend, is key to our freedom, our nimble-ness, and our ability to grow. By running a proper business, where every decision must have ROI, where every expenditure must be put to work, we free ourselves from being beholden to investors, or banks, or venture capitalists with unrealistic expectations, and open ourselves up to opportunities. So when shots come up, we're prepared to take them.

Our Business Is Diversified
We have deliberately never, ever put all our eggs in one basket, with the full understanding that things can--and do--change, and those changes will not always be within our control, especially when they're dictated by massive platforms and search engines. With our foothold in content, influencers, events, and more--and within each of those, a versatile approach that doesn't have us sinking our teeth too heavily into any one tactic or program--we can be flexible and adaptable in response to the evolving needs of our audience, our clients, and the industry.

Niche Over Numbers
We have fostered and built truly engaged, passionate, plugged-in communities and audiences in particular, coveted niches. From college women, to micro-influencers, to food-obsessed Gen Z-ers, we create content and experiences for specific groups that are longing for community, and that advertisers are dying to access. Numbers and reach and scale are absolutely still important, but they're just one mile marker of our success, not the only mile marker of our success.

Thoughtful Growth
Building upon each previous item, we have always prioritized deliberate, thoughtful growth. Not growing for the sake of growing. Not growing to achieve some crazy multiple in a short amount of time, by hiring or spending like crazy. Every decision must make sense for the business, for our audience, for our clients, for our team, and for our bottom line, so we can continue to do what we do every single day, rather than risk it all by swinging too big.

And so from all this, Her Campus finds itself in 2019, in the buyer's seat. Not getting scooped up or folded in like other start-ups and media companies, but instead being the one doing. the. acquiring. And it's because we've built a durable, sustainable model that works. A model that can be applied to other portfolio properties. A fiscal wherewithal to wrap our arms around a new brand and not just avoid it losing money for us, but actually have it make money for us right from the get-go. Where others have not.

Joining forces with College Fashionista has been an absolute privilege, and we admire so deeply the brand Melissa and Amy built, as we now reach a new audience--and an audience in new ways--with the fashion, beauty, and career content and programming they crave.

Speaking of cravings, the Spoon University brand, team, and Secret Sauce tech platform represent a smartly-concocted, highly-trafficked property that supports its community with the same fierce passion we do our own--just with more avocados.

And in adding the Lala and launching Her20s, we're serving our audience in ways they've been asking for and that we couldn't wait to deliver on, as we help them navigate their post-college years with the same service, support, entertainment, and respect they've come to expect from us throughout their college careers.

It wasn't just these phenomenal brands that joined the HCM family in 2019.

We also said hello to new team members, welcomed new family members, and celebrated milestone workiversaries.

And to support our team--our most important, impactful, valuable part of the entire company--we set in place new benefits including company-wide WFH Fridays and a fully-appointed mother's room, and laid the groundwork for improved 401k access, a more inclusive company holiday policy, and paid internships in 2020.

As we reflect on the past decade for Her Campus, we are struck by both how much has changed, and by how little has. Our team, our day-to-day, our capabilities, our clients, our office, look nothing like they did ten years ago. Yet at the same time, it has always been about serving our audience, lifting them up and meeting their needs, while building a sustainable company that's strong enough to go the distance so we can continue to create these opportunities we set out to provide in the first place. Our future matters, not just for the 60+ full-time and part-time jobs we've created (and added to the economy), but also for the tens of thousands of women who we are constantly elated to learn that we played a small or large part in their college experience and the years beyond.

So as we look to 2020, we see it like this: We're clipped in. We're focused. We feel the ground beneath us. And we're ready to climb.

2020 is about settling in--to the new size of the company, to our new more stylish, more delicious, family of brands, to our newly-felt identity as Her Campus Media. 2020 is about integrating--so that every department, every system, every process, runs smoothly, runs efficiently, and runs thoughtfully, and we're applying best practices and learned successes across the board, in order to scale. We've got big goals for the year in store, and we won't get anywhere without a whole lot of hard work, but we can all take a breath knowing that thanks to everything we've done this year (and leading up), the groundwork has been laid, the stage has been set, and now it's just time to get it done.

We couldn't be prouder of this team and of the company we keep, getting to work day in and day out with each of you, who are so wildly talented, passionate, creative, driven, ambitious, and unrelenting, who push all of us to be better every single day. We are committed to making sure this is a place that you, too, feel proud to count yourself an important and integral part of.

As we ring in 2020 and a new decade--for the world and for HC--we see nothing but love, light, and promise. As we celebrate New Year's, we hope that you party as hard as at our 10th birthday party (if you want), self-care as hard as in a @hercampusbeauty face mask video, and sleep as well as after Her Conference.

CHEERS!

HCXO,
Stephanie, Windsor & Annie