With the Daily Secret headquarters in Athens (and New York), and me based in Melbourne, the 11-hour time difference made for an unusual interview hour.
But this is something all too common for Danai Christopoulou, editorial director of the online Greek start-up and now global enterprise Daily Secret.

“It’s not strange at all, just a very usual part of my day,” she tells Neos Kosmos.

“I’ve been to meetings held after midnight Athens time because I had to talk with someone in Asia or Canada. They’re the perks of working for a global company I guess.”

Founded in June 2010 by two Greek entrepreneurs with experience in media and local start-ups, former CEO Nikos Kakavoulis and Phaedra Chrousos, the company was started amidst the financial crisis as a way to help their fellow Athenians fall in love with their city again, to discover hidden places and corners they didn’t know about and to rediscover those they had forgotten.

“It was more like a good karma project at a time when that city was going through a rough patch,” she says.

Curated to cater to the various interests of its global audience, covering eight lifestyle categories including ‘food’, ‘bars’, ‘things to do’ and ‘outdoors’, Daily
Secret has made its mark as one of the biggest daily email newsletters outside of the US.

Those interested can access the website and sign up free of charge to receive daily and weekly emails, and as the name suggests, each email reveals a ‘secret’.

Known as Daily Secret ‘insiders’, they give the reader an inside scoop into their city of choice, such as the whereabouts of a tucked-away bar, an impromptu dance lesson, a new pop-up shop, a picnic spot in a forgotten park or an exciting store opening.

In just three months, the Daily Secret Athens’ edition had grown to over 30,000 subscribers, leading the team to realise that perhaps this could be something that would work in cities outside of Greece, in countries with a different economic climate.

To test the waters, the popular US media format was taken to neighbouring Istanbul, a city which at the time was having a completely different experience to Greece.

With the Turkish market growing steadily, people were happy and prosperous – so how would the Daily Secret be received when designed with the crisis-stricken Greeks in mind?

Well, the stats speak for themselves. In just four short years, Daily Secret now has a presence in more than twenty-two countries around the globe, covering close to thirty cities. Its content is available in nine different languages and the website currently has close to 800,000 subscribers worldwide.

“We soon realised that it [the concept] could be something that worked despite the crisis and not because of it,” Ms Christopoulou told Neos Kosmos.

“That’s when it dawned on us that people all over the world are not so different – they all want the same things, they all want their daily life to be as interesting and exciting as possible.”

Like the majority of start-ups of this nature, the funding is generally generated by advertising, with the company estimated to be worth US$12 billion in 2012. Companies, often well known brands such as L’Oreal, are able to contact Daily Secret for collaboration. This will either result in advertising banners, which complement the email newsletter, or a sponsored write-up about either an event or collection.

Most online sources are constantly bombarding their users with advertising, however, there is something refreshing about Daily Secret, as it feels it has a real responsibility to its readership, which has resulted in something of an honesty policy.

“We make sure that these stories are clearly marked as sponsored so that our audience knows that we’re not trying to push advertising messages as editorial,” she tells Neos Kosmos.

Although initially designed to cater to the locals, four years in and the team has realised that its readership is a mixture of both locals and tourists.

Travellers are seeking the insider’s scoop in a new and unfamiliar destination so as to avoid the usual and mundane activities on offer to foreigners.

Anyone who has travelled will know that one of the best ways to experience a city is with locals, whether it be family or friends. But if that’s not possible, then the Daily Secret can fill the void.

Teaming up with national tourism organisations, another way the company generates its income is through content marketing. This entails the team creating curated and specific content for the organisation about destinations around the world, such as their marketing campaign earlier this year in conjunction with the Greek National Tourism Organisation.

The campaign took place in partnership with leading European digital media network ThinkDigital, with an aim to encourage and inspire American and Canadian tourists to visit Greece through a fun mini-quiz designed to help you discover what type of traveller you are. This would then lead to one of five customised travel guides for your style of travelling.

“We’re not a guide per se,” Ms Christopoulou explains to Neos Kosmos.

“What really makes us different is that emotional connection we have with our readers, the way we write content, the editorial voice … it’s a relationship and for me every relationship is important.”

So with more than twenty-two destinations on the list, why stop there and not add one more?

Australia has been on the Daily Secret radar for quite some time, according to Ms Christopoulou, with a plan to start with cities Melbourne and Sydney on their agenda for early 2015.

“I don’t know if Melbourne will be a daily edition, but there will be some sort of content, which you can access every day through the website.

“We do have our very own Greek Australian editor, who’s very excited to write about things from Australia,” she adds with a laugh.

The former managing editor of international Conde Nast title Glamour Greece has been with the company for two and half years, and doesn’t shy away from showing her enthusiasm for the project.

“It’s not just promoting a brand or writing about a shop. We’re creating great content,” she says.

“We believe we’re telling stories and helping people create new memories, because ultimately that’s what good journalism and good storytelling do – they help you create new memories.”

Currently one of the fastest growing digital media brands, if the Daily Secret start-up is an example of the innovation that can arise as a result of trying circumstances such as the economic crisis, then the future is looking a lot brighter.

If you are interested in signing up to Daily Secret’s Melbourne edition, visit australia.dailysecret.com/melbourne/en#axzz3JJNQIFpj