‘We’ve been profitable from the second month’: Joe Aston on Rampart’s first year

Joe Aston says his investigative commentary publication Rampart is making “multiples” of $500,000 in revenue after its first year of operation.

The former Australian Financial Review columnist sat down with Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes for an Unmakers Edition of the Mumbrellacast. The pair covered a lot of ground, including a probing discussion on the economics of Aston’s operation, his interview guest list, the character of former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, and his plans to expand beyond “the Joe Aston Show”.

Aston left the AFR in 2023 to work fulltime on his book on Qantas, The Chairman’s Lounge. In the podcast, he tells Burrowes he had hoped the book would sell 20,000 copies.

“I’m always a bit of a pessimist, so my fear was, that we wouldn’t get [to 20,000 copies],” he said. “It wouldn’t have mattered in the end, because I had my advance in my pocket.”

To date, according to Aston, the book has sold 65,000 copies, which he attributed to the wide appeal of the airline.

“That’s the great thing about Qantas: [if] you’re in High Street, Campbelltown, people care about Qantas because they catch the ‘Bogan Missile’ to Bali. And if you are in a boardroom in Chifley Tower, people care about Qantas because they’re members of the Chairman’s Lounge. It just captures the entire gamut of Australia.”

Aston declined to give his year-old publication’s exact revenue numbers, but said when he started, he had hoped to replace his previous earnings while at Nine (the AFR is owned by Nine) within a year.

“I’ve shot 50% past that very, very quickly. And the growth continues and we’re now entering our second year,” he said.

“Churn is incredibly low. It’s like in the single digits, which again, really surprised me.”

Rampart has commercial relationships with The Squiz, which handles sales and distribution, and the AFR, which covers Rampart’s legal requirements and insurance.

In exchange for the latter, the AFR gets a percentage of subscriptions and a column from Aston once a month.

To listen to the interview, sign up to the Mumbrellacast on your favourite podcasting app, or listen directly below.