Dear Reader,
It was another busy year at Afloat.ie in 2022, and we want to express our thanks for your continued support.
Because of your generous backing and our other supporters, Afloat.ie reached 1.9m unique readers last year.
Our website dedicated to Irish sailing, boating and maritime issues reached this high watermark by informing and entertaining our engaged boating audience, something we aim to repeat as we head into 2023.
All of this is a testament to our tight-knit and active community of readers and Afloat. ie's combination of opinion, hard news and features put it at the very heart of the national — and increasingly international — conversation on sailing, boating and maritime affairs.
It's proof that our mission — to provide Irish sailing and boating clubs, classes and the wider maritime community with a comprehensive, reliable and independent platform promoting our great sport to the broad and connected audience only the internet provides — is genuinely working.
As we've said before, this success would not be possible without our full–time marine journalists, web developers, and, indeed, our advertisers and supporters dedicated to promoting Irish sailing and boating. Progress, like we have achieved to date, would not have been achievable without it.
As previously acknowledged, it remains a challenging climate for online media, particularly when it comes to monetisation.
Thanks to your support, however, we have not resorted to putting our content behind a paywall like other news websites — because we want to keep our marine journalism open to the widest possible audience, which we believe is one of the keys to our growth. The figures bear this out.
All of us at Afloat wish you the best for 2023, and we hope you will continue your valued support in the new year to come.
