Greens NSW state MP Jenny Leong featured in an episode of the documentary about anti-Asian racism. She says her team were surprised when LadBible got in touch, figuring she was being set up as an “angry feminist”, but realised the project was well-intentioned when she saw the other activist groups and people involved.

Leong is aware of its limitations. “It’s their version of the big company putting something in their annual report saying all their staff volunteered at a soup kitchen,” she says.

But Leong also praises the series for being well-made and delivering on its promises of spreading activists' message. “Just because you’re not in a highly politically charged space, like Ladbible’s audience, doesn’t mean you can’t grasp the concept of these things,” Leong says. “It can be really powerful to give language to people who are affected by systemic racism but might not have the language to describe it.”

Even the fact of Unheard’s existence is evidence of a major transformation that LadBible has undergone over recent years.

It once ran features like “Cleavage Thursday” and “Bumday Monday” and holds within its stable a fresh incarnation of UNILAD, a title that once ran an article that concluded with the line: “Uni Lad does not condone rape without saying ‘surprise’.” That article, which was published a decade ago under different management, drew widespread condemnation. It was hardly the sort of press coverage that mainstream brands want to be associated with, or that Facebook and other social media sites would want to be seen promoting. Rather than Funniest Home Videos, the better traditional media analogy back then for LadBible would have been lad’s magazines such as FHM or Zoo, which have since ceased publication.

But the new LadBible AU seems to be exactly what brands want to be associated with, in part because of the 13 million-strong audience it claims in Australia. Its audience is only 50 to 55 per cent male, Summers says, despite Ladbible’s previous image and tends to be young. That demographic can be tricky to find, helping to explain why, in the United Kingdom, LadBible’s largest advertiser is Her Majesty’s Government. In Australia it is mega brands Amazon Prime Video, Subway and V Energy drinks.

“When we first started out, our content was quite raw,” says Summers, who previously worked for The Guardian and has been with LadBible for five years. “And that’s how we managed to pick up a huge audience because it was so relevant to young people. But as we’ve evolved through the years, our business has just become a lot more diverse, speaking to such a huge audience. With that scale comes a responsibility.”

LadBible is about to get even bigger. Summers is currently in New York working on the company’s expansion into the United States.

“Americans make up about 40 per cent of our total audience,” Summers says. “That’s the reason why we’re here.”

LadBible is not the first digital publisher to burn bright on viral content. BuzzFeed, which became known for its amusing listicles in the early 2010s but later established a well-regarded if expensive news division, was valued at $US1.7 billion in 2016. It is now worth $US560 ($782 million) and has made several rounds of deep cuts to its staff, especially in news.

Loading

LadBible Group, by contrast, has not made comparable forays into the costly world of traditional journalism. The full LadBible group, which includes UNILAD, SPORTbible and other titles, is worth about £326.15 million ($578 million). It recorded £5.2 million in profit after tax last financial year off £54.5 million in group revenue.

“We were lucky enough that [publishers such as BuzzFeed and Vice] went first and we could learn from their mistakes,” Summers says. That boils down to starting small and growing slowly as revenue allows. It is a prudent strategy, but the US is a congested market. For one, the American Funniest Home Videos is still on air.

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.