About Women's Agenda

Women's Agenda

Overview

Women's Agenda is an Australian online news publication for professional women, published by the independent, female-owned company Agenda Media from Sydney. It covers news, careers, business, leadership, politics, health and culture through the lens of women's experiences and advancement, publishing daily news and analysis, a daily newsletter, podcasts, research reports and an annual leadership awards program. Founded in 2012, it has operated since 2016 under the ownership of its founding editor, Angela Priestley, and is one of the longest-running digital-native publications in Australian women's media.

The publication's premise, set out at its launch, was to offer achievement-focused information for career-minded women and female business owners — news, views and advice intended to help level the playing field for women at work. That focus has broadened over time into general daily news coverage reported and framed for its audience, but the organising idea has remained constant: as editor-in-chief Tarla Lambert has put it, the brand's long mission is making sure female and gender diverse voices are heard.

History

Women's Agenda was launched on 7 August 2012 by Private Media, the independent publisher of Crikey, with Marina Go as publisher and Angela Priestley — formerly editor of The Power Index — as founding editor. Mumbrella reported that the site began with about 4,000 subscribers. It remained a Private Media title for nearly four years; Jane Gilmore edited the site for six months in 2015–16 and oversaw a redesign, before Private Media sold Women's Agenda to Priestley in February 2016, in what trade coverage described as the third buyout of a Private Media title in a matter of months. Private Media chairman Eric Beecher said at the time that no one was better equipped than Priestley to take ownership, since she understood the audience because she was part of it.

Priestley relaunched the website in 2017 and co-founded Agenda Media Pty Ltd with Tarla Lambert, who became editor-in-chief. Earlier editors of the title included Georgina Dent, who left Women's Agenda to become an associate editor at Mamamia and later continued to write for the publication as a contributing editor. Under Priestley and Lambert's ownership the brand expanded well beyond a news website. The Women's Agenda Leadership Awards, which the publication had run since 2013 — initially sponsored by the National Australia Bank — continued as its flagship event, with a Hall of Fame whose inductees include Wendy McCarthy (2013), Ann Sherry (2014), Elizabeth Broderick (2016), Gillian Triggs (2017), Magda Szubanski (2018) and Layne Beachley (2021). In October 2020 the company launched Women's Health News, a dedicated health news section and weekly newsletter supported by Charles Sturt University, covering subjects such as endometriosis, fertility, pregnancy and women's cancers. Announcing the hub, Lambert — by then editor-in-chief — said the goal was to open conversations about women's health and elevate a wide range of female experts, while Priestley said the company's audience research had found women wanted health information from medical experts rather than social media influencers; the research reported at the time found 39 per cent of women surveyed had put off seeing a doctor or specialist during the pandemic. In July 2023 it launched its first app, The Keynotes, combining access to its daily content with keynote speeches by female leaders and a monthly Insights Report on gaps facing women at work. The awards were still being presented in 2024, when wildlife scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta was named Emerging Leader in Science.

Programming and Content

The core product is daily news and commentary for professional women: coverage of business, careers and leadership, workplace policy, politics, money and entrepreneurship, alongside culture and lifestyle coverage and a growing body of health journalism through Women's Health News. The editorial day is built around a lunchtime daily news update sent to subscribers, and the site describes its morning process as determining the day's agenda early — preparing a conversational scan of the key issues before most readers start work. The publication's own About page records that, over its life, it has published more than 1,000 newsletters and 7,000 stories and managed dozens of events.

Audio is a significant strand. The Women's Agenda Podcast, hosted by Priestley and Lambert-Patel, wraps the week's biggest stories and interviews guests from business, politics and advocacy; episodes were appearing through July and August 2026, covering subjects from artificial intelligence and women's workforce participation to birth trauma and men's violence against women. Research is another: in April 2023 the Commonwealth Bank's Women in Focus group commissioned Women's Agenda to survey more than 800 women business owners for a report titled "Grit & Resilience", and a follow-up partnership produced "Networks & Impact" in 2024. The Keynotes app adds speeches, data and a monthly insights report to the daily news service.

Audience and Reach

Women's Agenda addresses career-minded, time-poor professional women and women in business. The most detailed audience figures available are the publication's own, reported in a September 2020 interview with Lambert: at that time the website was being seen by around 320,000 people per month, it had more than 90,000 followers on social media and 25,000 subscribers to its daily e-newsletter. Those figures date from 2020 and are the company's own; no independently audited audience measurement for the title is published. The publication states that it is funded by partnerships and advertisers, and by helping organisations with content strategy and marketing aimed at engaging women; the Commonwealth Bank's Women in Focus group has been a major sponsor and partner, including as chief sponsor of the 2023 Leadership Awards alongside partners Charles Sturt University, MECCA M-Power and CSIRO.

Digital Presence

Women's Agenda is digital-only. Its website carries the daily news service, the Women's Health News section and its archive; readers can subscribe to the lunchtime daily news update and the weekly Women's Health News newsletter, follow the title on social media, and listen to The Women's Agenda Podcast through the usual podcast platforms. The Keynotes app, launched in July 2023, packages the daily content with keynote talks and monthly research for members. The publication also maintains a presence through its events — the Leadership Awards and partner events run with sponsors — which extend the brand into live settings.

Ownership and Organisation

Women's Agenda is published by Agenda Media Pty Ltd, the company co-founded in 2017 by Angela Priestley and Tarla Lambert after Priestley acquired the title from Private Media. As of 2024 the company described itself as an independent, 100 per cent female-owned media company. Priestley is the publisher and founding editor; Lambert — credited as Tarla Lambert-Patel in the podcast's recent seasons, in which the two are described as the publication's co-founders — is co-owner and editor-in-chief. The masthead recorded on the publication's contact page in February 2024 listed Allison Ho as producer and Jessie Tu and Madeline Hislop as journalists, a small team supplemented by contributors. The company is based in Sydney, and alongside the flagship title it publishes Women's Health News, produces podcasts and research, and undertakes custom publishing and content projects for partner organisations.

Contact and Availability

Women's Agenda is published online at womensagenda.com.au, where readers can subscribe to its daily lunchtime newsletter, download The Keynotes app and follow its podcast. The publication lists a general contact email, admin@womensagenda.com.au, on its About page for enquiries, and partnership and advertising enquiries are handled through the site. Its offices are in Sydney, New South Wales.