Hi!
Karalyn, the owner/editor of For The Punks here. There are some words I want to say about 2022 and what our readers should expect in 2023.
In 2022, we made 243 posts on our website.
We now have over 4,000 followers on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok combined.
We also have over 300 likes on our Spotify Biweekly Playlist and we were able to feature so many amazing artists both on the cover and through the playlist adds.
Just wow.
There are so many bands, managers, publicists, and people to thank for letting all of this coverage happen. If you worked with us this year, we thank you for taking the time!
If we weren’t able to work together, we still thank you for taking the time to reach out and think of us. We were pitched so many amazing musicians this year and it is always so impossible to feature every single person. Maybe we can make something happen in 2023, we always strive to feature new faces we haven’t before!
One of our biggest projects of the year was working with the Act Like You Know punk and hardcore festival that is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We were a sponsor of the festival and published interviews, reviews, and other related coverage! Thanks to Aaron for working with us and Precious’ full on-site coverage will be posted soon.
One of my goals was to expand even more into hardcore/punk coverage and we truly hit that goal.
I ended up not going to the festival in person, which comes with some regrets, but between some personal reasons and the snowstorm that hit Buffalo (it shut down the airport), it would not have been possible. In 2023, I hope to make it to the fest!
I even made one of my first zines for the fest. It’s a 60 page zine with photos, interviews, recent releases, other promo, and more. This was truly one of the coolest things of 2022, both for myself and For The Punks. If you want to download the digital version, head to the Act Like You Know festival page we have.
I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to this year and I do feel like in some areas we were not as strong as others. As I’m sure many can understand and agree, running an online publication of this size with full time students, others with jobs, etc., is so hard. Truly.
Thank you for all being patient with us if there was a delay in response or posting.
Even though there were some difficulties, this year was still amazing. Like I shared earlier, there were so many people we worked with and featured! I never thought that many posts would have been possible. I’m proud of all of our team members whether they have been on our team for over a year or two OR if they are brand new to our team. I am proud of my team members for the things that they have accomplished outside of the magazine as well – there are too many accomplishments to name for everyone but just know I am proud.
When it comes to 2023, though, some changes are happening.
Since August of 2019, I have been working almost every single day on something related to For The Punks. I created this website just before my first semester of college and just a few weeks ago, I finished my last semester of college and graduated.
Whether it was an email, social media post, website post, reply back to a comment on Instagram, and various other tasks, I have put in a lot of hours. The money to host this website has come out of my own pocket as well.
With that being said, I will be taking a little bit of a break in 2023. I need a little vacation and I need time to, I guess, “find myself” in other areas. I have not officially declared my first day of break yet but when I do, you will all know.
Do not worry though. A handful of our team members have stepped up and we are working on adding a few extra hands to keep the website going! Things may be slower or there may be less coverage than normal but I am still very honored and happy that so many people have had interest in either stepping up to help or joining our team to help and gain more experience. When I created this website in 2019, I had no idea this would be the case. If you told me that, I would probably disagree.
So, there are some new updates to our team. Some of them are listed below!
Haley May and Kirsten Newbrough are our photo assistants! If you are a band, publicist, or someone who receives photo pass requests, you will be receiving them from Haley and Kirsten! If you have a tour invite for us, please send them their way as well. We would love to work with you on live coverage this year! We have contributors in various cities of the United States. You can still use the email address forthepunksofficial [@] gmail dot com.
Krishna is our website assistant! Anything you see posted to our website will most likely be posted by Krish!
TJ, Jasmine, Olivia Marie, and Mia will be working on our socials for now! They’ll be doing various things so be sure to say hi if you see something from them!
Emma Agosta will be updating our Biweekly Playlist and providing you with other Spotify playlists! She will also be posting on our TikTok occasionally. If you would like to pitch a song to our playlist, please send an email and direct it to Emma! You can still use the email address forthepunksofficial [@] gmail dot com.
Some of our other team members like Olivia and Luna will still be doing graphics and we still have an awesome team of writers and photographers.
Yes, I will update this post as the positions are changed/updated as some more changes will be coming soon. It can be a post to refer to if there are questions or if you need to check something again.
I wanted to end 2022 by making this post as a way to thank every single one of you and to let you know of some things that are coming your way in the next few weeks.
Happy holidays & happy 2023 – hoping for a good year for everyone!
Best,
Karalyn
