Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. Today: As Vinyl Group this morning announces yet another acquisition, we talk to CEO Josh Simons about the bust-up that saw the ousting of Brag Media co-founder Luke Girgis, and the background to his opportunistic acquisition of Mediaweek.

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‘I stand behind the acquisition every day of the week’: Vinyl boss Josh Simons on the bumpy Brag Media buyout

Among the bosses of Australia’s ASX-listed media companies, nobody has had a more random path to the hot seat than Josh Simons. From the lead singer of rock band Buchanan, Simons went on to found Vampr, a social networking site for the music industry, before seeing that acquired by the company he went on to head, Vinyl Group.

Simons was the architect of Vinyl’s $8m+ purchase of the Brag Media group, publisher of The Brag and local editions of Rolling Stone and Variety among others, at the start of the year.

The initial plan was for Vinyl Group to be a portfolio company with its Brag Media arm run separately to its music platform interests. But that quickly fell over, with the less-than-amicable departure of Brag Media co-founder Luke Girgis five months after the takeover.

That left Simons taking what he describes in today’s interview with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes as “a masterclass in media” as he relocated from Melbourne and took charge of the Brag Media publishing operation.

That’s included a lesson in the publishing etiquette around journalistic independence. Simons concedes that he was “naive” when he took control adding: “I'm not dogmatic in terms of my views on things. And I think it's important to be able to know when you've said something stupid.”

Vinyl Group, with a market capitalisation of a little under $92m, is behind only Nine, Domain, Ooh Media, Seven West Media, ARN Media and Southern Cross Austereo when it comes to local ASX-listed media companies. When it comes to the narrower business of publishing, Vinyl is fourth if you also include the dual-listed News Corp. As Simons observes dryly: “It’s not lost on my parents.”

During the interview, Simons offers few clues about what led to the ousting of Girgis, although he hints: “We had to invest in areas that were previously just not being invested in. We needed to bring journalists in.”

Hires have included Lars Brandle as head of content, and promoting former Daily Mail and Cartology executive Jess Hunter to head of Brag Media. Since recording the interview, editor-in-chief Poppy Reid who was part of the Girgis era, announced her exit.

Earlier this month, Vinyl Group completed the fire sale acquisition of Mediaweek for just $1m after owner Trent Thomas was forced to sell the title following allegations of harassment towards staff. The timing and price of the deal was, Simons says, “almost too good to be true”. The integration is being overseen by Vinyl Group’s chief operating officer Joel King.

Simons hints there are more media acquisitions in the entertainment space to come, including overseas. Asked about the fact that Vinyl Group’s tech platforms are global while the media companies are local, he notes: “Rome wasn’t built in a day. We’ve got broad, ambitious plans for global. Rest assured that we're looking around the world to find teams that might add value in any of those areas inside the media part of Vinyl.”

As we were publishing this morning, Vinyl Group announced to the ASX that it has agreed to buy event and brand activation agency Funkified from founder Gus Stephenson for $2.5m. Funkified has been Brag Media’s in-house events supplier since 2021. It had a turnover of $4m and EBITDA profit of $430,000 in the last financial year.

In the interview, Simons also fleshes out his strategy for Vinyl Group, which as well as Vampr includes music credits database Jaxsta and online retail platform Vinyl. The job of the media arm is to fund investment in the company’s (so far) loss-making tech. “Our media company now is really the engine that allows us to invest in technology. In the past, we've seen media companies try and buy tech companies, and it hasn't worked out so well. And so what we're trying here is buying media companies to fuel tech.”

Despite being an ASX-listed company, Vinyl Group’s shareholder register is dominated by a handful of wealthy investors including WiseTech Global founder Richard White and Songrtradr boss Paul Wiltshire.

Says Simons: “I'm quite calm and optimistic about where everything's at.” Asked whether Vinyl Group still belongs on the ASX, he adds, intriguingly: “Yeah. Especially if you knew what I know.”

* Declaration of interest: Via his super fund, Tim Burrowes owns shares in most of Australia’s listed media companies, including Vinyl Group.

Inflation relief lifts Unmade Index

The Unmade Index bounced yesterday as the market absorbed improving inflation numbers. The index - which tracks Australia’s listed media and marketing companies - grew by 1.5% to 449.3 points - outperforming the wider ASX All Ordinaries which grew by 0.15% yesterday.

Among the larger stocks, Nine saw the biggest lift, up by 2.44%.

In the audio space, ARN Media and Southern Cross Austereo grew by 1.6% and 1.1%, while radio company Sports Entertainment Group lost 5.5%.

Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio.

As we count down to next week’s REmade conference, we’ll be back with a retail media-led edition of Unmade tomorrow.

Have a great day.

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade

[email protected]

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