Very occasionally, I come across someone who has missed the rise of The Ophthalmologist – and so I have to explain the vision of the publication. And when I do so by phone in the editorial office, I know I’ll receive a groan of “I’ve heard this 100 times before” from my colleagues, as I utter the words: “WIRED magazine for Ophthalmologists.” But unlike WIRED, we don’t charge you for our content. Samsung, Sony and Apple aren’t going to be spending any of their hefty consumer advertising budgets to reach our highly specialist readership. Your issues get delivered at a cost of nothing per annum – rather than the ~€50 a year you’d need to spend to get just 10 issues of WIRED in print. But do you know what? Despite being run on a shoestring budget (relative-to-WIRED), I think we compare favorably with my favorite consumer tome.
I know what you’re thinking: “Mark, this is hubris!” But I honestly don’t think so. We’ve covered many of the next big things first, and we’ve often done so in collaboration with the very people who are doing the work that’s changing the face of eyecare. When Robert MacLaren performed the first robot-assisted intraocular surgery in a patient, WIRED wasn’t there – even though the topic’s right up their street. The only two media people in the room were Martin Roberts (the cameraman that works with the BBC Science Correspondent, Fergus Walsh) – and me. Whether it’s stem cells, precision medicine, big data or big leaps in biomechanics, we’ve been there, at the right time, sharing those stories in the right way. Another outside avenue of inspiration for me is The Economist. Its insight and analysis is a shining example of how to do it right. It inspired me to bring Benchmarking articles to The Ophthalmologist; its influence can be seen in not just our infographics, but our big-issue, political and humanitarian coverage too. So fifty issues in, we’ve got on up, and we’ll stay on the scene (like a tech machine). We’ve built amazing relationships with you, our readers, and we’ll continue to grow and enhance our network to find out the latest and greatest developments, so that we can keep bringing you the best coverage. We set exceptionally high standards for ourselves; even though it costs you nothing, don’t accept anything less.
Mark Hillen
Editor
