If you were a fatalist, you could say that Ginger Brown was always going to happen.
The media landscape in Australia is shifting fast – and we got caught in the current.
Both of us were working at metro newspaper mX when it folded in June 2015. It was a huge shock to all the staff across our three offices: Sydney, Brisbane and the main hub in Melbourne.
We were simply out of a job.
Devastated, confused and reeling, we had to make quick decisions about our future — try and secure one of a scarce number of positions within the company (most of which meant a move north to Sydney) or cut and run.
For Andrea it had been 12 years with News Corp and nine with mX while for Cathy it was seven years at mX HQ. So many years of 6am starts working with some of most creative, talented, zany and downright funny people in journalism.
And it was really hard to say goodbye.
So, faced with the fact of a dwindling print media industry, what could we do with our future careers? Options seemed limited yet enormous: plead for a full time job with another news outlet, switch careers and become stuntwomen or maybe try to get a few shifts at the newly-opened Bunnings down the road.
Or we could take a leap of faith and start our own business.
And here we are.
They say being made redundant can be the best thing that ever happens to you.
And it is — even though you never think it at the time.
Now we have the privilege of working with the incredible team at The Huffington Post Australia as small business journalists after launching that section of the site in October 2015 and we’re stretching our creative wings by writing content and managing social media platforms for other niche websites, boutique agencies, content marketing giants and small businesses as well as collaborating with some of Australia’s leading arts performers and animal rescue groups. Check out our portfolio to see all the work we’ve been doing of late.
The only way is up!

– Cathy Anderson