New website focuses on rehab industry

For co-founders Matt Mendoza and Jason Smith, their new website, TheRealEdition.com, is a fusion between technology and the rehabilitation industry.

The site, launched in June and based out of a Newport Beach office, has published about 200 articles so far, mostly user-generated, on recovery-related topics such as personal stories and news reports about the industry.

Recent headlines include “Prescription Drug Instructions are There for a Reason” and “On the Other Side of the Door,” a story about a woman’s recovery process.

The Real Edition is already finding a steady readership: 20,000 unique views, mostly from readers within the United States, according to Mendoza.

“It’s a place to normalize these stories to help break that stigma of addiction,” Mendoza said.

Smith noted that while recovery-related blogs exist elsewhere on the Internet, unlike those, The Real Edition puts many voices in the same place.

“What’s happening is now you’re going to get generational shifts toward people who are a little bit more open with their struggles,” he said. “Overall, that’s the goal of our site: for people to see the human face of addiction and hopefully destroy that stigma, that negative connotation to the word addict.”

The site accepts submissions from writers of all levels. Some stories are promoted based on the clicks and recommendations they receive, as well as the amount of time spent reading them.

The Real Edition is also working to add a mobile app, podcast and recovery-related job board.

Mendoza, 31, lives in Costa Mesa and helps run the business end. Smith, 35, is a writer and the site’s creative director and editor. He lives in Auburn, outside Sacramento. Both are recovering addicts.

Garrett Hall, a graduate of Newport Harbor High School, is the site’s quality control manager.

Mendoza and Smith met after Mendoza read Smith’s writing. Both happened to share a common story: getting arrested in Mexico.

In Smith’s case, it was for transporting powerful pain-killers across the U.S.-Mexican border.

The Real Edition “came out of something really dark and ugly,” Smith said. “This thing came about from us being willing to share our experiences with each other and share common ground.”

Mendoza, an Irvine native once addicted to pharmaceutical opiates, now calls his addiction an “$800-a-day drug habit.” To fund it, he came up with a variety of ventures, “some more ethical than others.”

“That was all in the attempts to feed my addiction,” Mendoza said.

It caught up with him when the Secret Service arrested him for wire fraud. He served six months in prison and another six months in rehab.

Mendoza said the website’s name is inspired by the “real” content within it.

“In social media, people present themselves as something they’re not,” he said. “We’re always trying to present ourselves as people who are having a good time, are successful, have a lot of friends. You don’t normally see a lot of content that’s real.”

The Real Edition is “almost the anti-social media,” Mendoza said, “in that we’re trying to embrace brokenness.”

The Real Edition’s launch comes at a time when Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, to the frustration of many residents, is home to hundreds of sober-living homes and related treatment facilities, with addicts moving to the region from all over the country.

“I think there’s a big problem,” Mendoza said of the industry’s proliferation in Newport-Mesa. “Not enough accountability.”

But, he added, that’s where The Real Edition may help.

Mendoza hopes the site will expand to become “the Yelp for the rehab industry,” exposing bad operators and highlighting good ones with a directory that rates facilities on their safety record, staff qualifications and overall patient treatment.

“I want to give a voice to the actual alumni of these rehabs,” Mendoza said.