Media Central Corporation Inc. (CSE: FLYY, FSE: 3AT) (“MediaCentral” or the “Company”) today announced that its wholly owned property Canncentral.com (“Canncentral”) will provide ongoing coverage of the burgeoning psychedelics sector. Canncentral is a digital magazine dedicated to covering the latest in cannabis news and lifestyle and is an authoritative voice in the complementary wellness market. Canncentral’s psychedelics reporting will focus on the wide range of therapeutic and medical applications as well as business news, trends and legislative changes in the rapidly emerging area.
“The world of psychedelics is a natural extension of the content we produce at Canncentral,” said Brian Kalish, CEO of MediaCentral. “Our 6.5 million audience of engaged influential readers have their fingers on the pulse of emerging trends and are eager to consume up-to-date information from our award-winning editorial teams. Early signs point to the huge impact that psychedelics will have on society from a cultural, medical and business perspective. This focus on psychedelics is a natural progression of our ongoing strategy to leverage our considerable audience and capitalize on the latest in material trends as we move to further monetize our titles.”
The topic of psychedelics and medical psychedelics has gained worldwide momentum. In late 2018, the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided “breakthrough therapy” status to a psilocybin (magic mushroom) treatment for clinical depression, pushing the industry into the spotlight. Over the last twenty four months several U.S cities have decriminalized psychedelics for medicinal purposes such as in mental health treatment, and a number of companies including Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Merck & Co., and Pfizer have commenced clinical trials to research how psychedelics like LSD, MDMA and ketamine can target a range of medical aliments from cancer to PTSD, to depression to opioid addiction. As testament to the rising significance of the industry, Johns Hopkins University recently launched a dedicated research center for psychedelic studies called the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research.
A recent study by Data Bridge Market Research indicates the psychedelics market is experiencing a compound annual growth rate of approximately 16%. This is driven in part by the efficacy and impact expected from chemicals such as LSD and Ketamine in the antidepressant drug market alone, which is anticipated to exceed US$15.98 billion by 2023. As a result, many analysts have forecasted the potential of the psychedelics market to outpace cannabis as an investment class.
Canncentral will provide regular coverage on all things psychedelics and will distribute stories omnichannel to its growing audience through its own platform and MediaCentral’s other titles including NOW Magazine (“NOW”) in Toronto and Georgia Straight (“the Straight“) in Vancouver. Content around psychedelics will be integrated across the Company’s full spectrum of three digital platforms, two print publications, three newsletters and nine social media channels accounting for nearly a million total followers.
Launched in fall 2019 Canncentral was the first original digital platform from MediaCentral. Earlier this week, MediaCentral announced that the Company has begun a beta-launch of ECentralSports.com, set to target the explosive eSports and egaming industry. The continued expansion of MediaCentral’s news and information platforms is part of its ongoing strategy to produce and acquire existing high-quality publications across the U.S and Canada, with the goal of consolidating, digitizing and monetizing an audience of over 100 million of the most influential consumers in North America.