RIP Pedestrian Group has been sold to Vinyl for “nominal consideration”
BY: Kartya Vucetic
They say “go woke, go broke”, and unfortunately, that looks to be ringing true for Pedestrian Group this morning.
They’re one of Australia’s most recognisable youth media publishers. Now, it’s been announced that Vinyl Group has acquired Pedestrian from Nine Entertainment for “nominal consideration”. That’s media speak for ouch.
According to AdNews, the transaction does not involve any material cash, debt, scrip or ongoing royalties. Completion is also scheduled for June 15, as Pedestrian joins Vinyl’s growing media stable which already includes Concrete Playground, Mediaweek, Tone Deaf and the local licences for Rolling Stone, Variety, BuzzFeed and LADbible.
It’s a fairly striking turn for Pedestrian, which Nine first bought majority shares in back in 2015 for $10 million. In 2018, they took full ownership for an additional $39 million.
To be clear, Pedestrian still has serious reach. The group reportedly reaches more than 9.4 million people monthly across owned, social and distributed platforms. The group spans across PEDESTRIAN.TV, Pedestrian Jobs, Openair Cinemas and Pedestrian Studio.
But the deal is also a pretty blunt reminder that audience and business value are not the same thing. Following a restructure, Pedestrian is expected to contribute between $0.6 million and $0.8 million in pro forma EBITDA to Vinyl in FY27. In other words, you can be culturally recognisable, widely read and still worth far less than the internet would like to believe.
For Nine, the sale looks like a strategic clean-up as the company continues to focus on larger digital growth assets such as Stan and 9Now. For Vinyl, it’s another addition to a fast-growing portfolio of youth, culture and entertainment brands.
