On paper, 2019 will be a big year for halfwheel.

That’s how last year’s version of this article started. In it, I said that we were likely to do two big things in 2019: move our office and redesign our website.

As it turned out, I never really could have imagined just how big this past year has been for us.

About a year ago, I wasn’t happy with where halfwheel was at. It was December 2018 and while we were succeeding in some metrics—traffic was up, revenue was up and halfwheel’s standing in the industry was probably as good as it ever was—but we weren’t doing a great job running halfwheel.

A lot of that was on me. Four months of nearly non-stop travel had taken its toll. Reviews weren’t going up as consistently, we were missing and late to a lot of news stories and sloppiness seemed to be getting to an all-time high.

We needed to get back to doing what we do best: writing about the cigar industry.


In December we turned the corner a bit and reset ourselves. I got committed to trying to get some of the behind-the-scenes work back on track and I felt good about where we were heading in 2019.

And it paid off.

I’m writing this before the end of the year, but with a week left, here’s where we would stand if 2019 was already over:

  • Pageviews — Up 16.7 percent (compared to 2018)
  • Unique Visitors — Up 24.2 percent
  • Posts — Up 10 percent

All of these numbers represent the best halfwheel has ever done.

I also think that the non-measurables show that 2019 was particularly special. Our IPCPR coverage—certainly the singular biggest focus of our year—was the best it’s been; we produced more videos and I think with better production quality than ever before; Patrick’s work on local legislation was simply unparalleled; and I think the editorials and perspective posts that were published this year speak for themselves.

If you have time and want to read some more in-depth pieces, my three favorites were:


So, back to those two big things.

We did both, mostly on schedule.

A NEW LOOK

In late May, we unveiled the new look for this website. As I said then—and the last time we did this—design changes never go over easy, but if you go back and look at what this website used to look like, I hope you can appreciate the changes we made.

At some point in 2020 we are actually going to update the website again, consider it halfwheel 3.1. I doubt you’ll notice many of the changes, but Bistro Studios—the awesome company that designed the website for us—wants to make some backend changes to improve performance and we are willing to make that investment.

A NEW SPACE

In July we moved offices. We are still in Dallas, technically, we are now actually in Dallas proper. Due to the hectic year, it’s taken us a bit longer than expected to get fully settled, but we are close.

I know that many (or at least some) of you want to see what the space looks like, I hope to do a whole post covering that some time in the next few months, but we just aren’t ready, yet.

If you work in the cigar industry you will realize that sandwiched in between this was the IPCPR Convention & Trade Show, needless to say, it’s also been a hectic year.

A THANK YOU

Every year, this post includes three things, the first of which seems appropriate now.

We write about cigars for a living. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a privilege.

While there are times when it is not pleasant, it’s not lost on any of us that this would be many people’s dream job. The grass can always seem greener, but I can’t imagine there are that many things I’d rather be doing than halfwheel.

We get to do this because of you. Whether you are a smoker, a retailer, a manufacturer; hell, even if you are a fellow blogger we are still getting a pageview out of this and you are all our readers.

A lot of work goes into halfwheel but we get more out of it than any of you do.

As I mentioned yesterday, 2019 was a trying year for the cigar industry and that includes media. We put in a lot of work to make 2019 special, but we also got lucky, not just in the last 365 days, but also in every one of the near 3,000 days that this site has been around.

With that all said, here’s the first thank you of 2020. We really appreciate each and every one of you for reading or watching because without you we couldn’t do what we do.

HOLY GRAIL + AWARDS WEEK 2020

Next up is some scheduling.

As we do the first week of every year, now it’s time to kick off the new year in style by reviewing some crazy cigars. This year’s line-up is probably my favorite in quite some time.

The concept started when we launched this site in January 2012. We wanted to kick it off with a bang, so in that very first week we dug deep and probably reviewed $5,000 worth of cigars in a week.

We’ve continued the tradition ever since and this year is no different, the first of those reviews will get published today.

Later this month, we will unveil our awards for 2019. The schedule is as follows:

  • Jan. 13, 2020 (Monday) — Numbers Review
  • Jan. 14, 2020 (Tuesday) — Factory of the Year
  • Jan. 15, 2020 (Wednesday) — Company of the Year
  • Jan. 16, 2020 (Thursday) 12 p.m. CDT — Packaging Awards
  • Jan. 17, 2020 (Friday) 12 p.m. CDT — Top 25 Cigars + Post Show
  • Jan. 20, 2020 (Monday) 12 p.m. CDT — The Consensus Top 25 Cigars

One small note, we are going to do two live shows on Jan. 17. The first will be our Top 25 unveiling show. Unlike last year, where it took almost two hours, we are going to try to do this year’s in a little more than one hour.

Once that’s done, we are going to take a quick break and we will start a recap show where we will answer questions and banter.

TWO REQUESTS

I always two request two things of you, the reader; two things that I’ll be doing today.

The first is that you go back and read the very first post we published at halfwheel.

I do it multiple times per year, but always when writing this article. I’d like to think that we’ve become what we set out to be and I’d argue that 2019 was the best embodiment of that date.

The second request is to do what we are doing this time of year. Holy grail week started as a way to dig deep in our humidors and to smoke the cigars we’d been saving for a special day. No day is as special as today, and so I’d ask you to join us by enjoying a special cigar today. 

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.