‘$750K worth of savings are expected’: Luke Girgis departs The Brag Media
The Brag Media has made some major leadership changes six months after being acquired by ASX-listed music company Vinyl Group, including a review that sees managing director and publisher Luke Girgis depart.
Current general manager, Jessica Hunter, has been promoted to head of The Brag Media, while Billboard’s Lars Brandle has been appointed as head of content.
Vinyl Group said it is expected that there will be $750,000 worth of savings over the next year, following the thorough review of the business and Girgis’ departure.
In early 2024, Vinyl Group paid $8 million in cash to acquire the publisher, by way of investment from WiseTech Global’s CEO and founder, Richard White, with a further $2 million payable in cash or stock based on financial performance. The Brag Media joined music credits business Jaxsta, music industry social-professional network and talent marketplace Vampr, and online record store Vinyl.com, in Vinyl Group’s portfolio of properties.
As part of the deal, Girgis, who was CEO of The Brag Media, entered into a full time employment agreement as publisher and managing director of the company.
“Upon acquiring The Brag Media, the Board and I have taken the time to get to know all the incredible talent in the team,” said Josh Simons, chief executive of Vinyl Group.
“It became clear that Jessica’s leadership and commercial achievements since joining the business have made her an undeniable force. We believe in Jessica’s ability to steer The Brag Media, unlock its full potential and drive our ambitious growth plans forward. I look forward to working closely with Jess and Lars in their new roles. The Brag Media is synonymous with youth culture, and the best is yet to come.”
Luke Girgis
Hunter joined The Brag Media mid-last year, as general manager of partnerships, after nearly three years at Woolworths Group’s retail media business Cartology. She was quickly promoted to general manager.
Her previous experience extends nearly two decades, across sales and partnerships roles at Bauer Media, News Corp, Nine and Daily Mail Australia.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to achieve since I joined The Brag Media,” she said.
“Our business is home to some of the best people in media. This is a fantastic opportunity to lead Australia’s largest creator of premium youth content and events through the next phase of growth.
“I’m grateful to Josh and the Board for their trust and remain motivated to ensure our portfolio of iconic brands and partnerships reach their full potential, and that our clients receive top-tier support and award-winning campaign solutions that sit at the centre of youth culture,” Hunter added.
Brandle, meanwhile, has spent over fifteen years at Billboard as the Australian correspondent.
As head of content, he will be responsible for The Brag Media’s content strategy and output across its suite of titles including Rolling Stone Australia and New Zealand, Variety Australia, The Music Network, Tone Deaf, and more.
“Vinyl Group has a very clear mission statement: That we exist to power and empower all facets of the music ecosystem,” Simons told Mumbrella in February. “…But what that really means is servicing and empowering all participants in that world – and as I mentioned, The Brag Media will help us service the connection between fans and artists.”
There have been no changes made regarding Poppy Reid, current editor-in-chief at The Brag Media and its suite of titles.
Mumbrella has contacted Vinyl Group for further comment.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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I couldn’t agree more. The way that business was run was far from profitable, or professional, and the traffic was driven by US titles, not their O&O brands as they try to claim. Behind the shiny awards ceremonies and bold claims, it was a rogue operation with a lot of questionable business decisions. No wonder they’ve let him go.
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The op-eds were an embarrassment and the Australian publishing operation was non existent. The smart move by Vinyl would be to take Girgis salary and invest it back into the the local titles. Word is he also had an Assistant. It’s good to see an iconic title like Rolling Stone is now in the hands of a more sophisticated operation. The fact a hack like Girgis ever got his hands on that title shows how far the publishing industry has fallen
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Brag was a small re-seller media business infatuated with it’s own PR. Vinyl probably realised it is time to park the self-promoting op-eds, save 750k and attempt to properly stitch the bandaid business together. If I was a media buyer who worked with this business, I would be interrogating those results.
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Absolutely disgusting the sort of money Girgis was on. Like a tapeworm…
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I wonder if Luke is going to update his self-created Wikipedia page?
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A $750K salary for a business of that size is absolutely ridiculous. It’s no wonder they let him go.
Most people don’t understand The Brag’s underlying business. They call themselves Australia’s largest youth publisher, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
For a business that generates $8.39 million in revenue, the large majority of this is for managing the ad sales of larger US publications like Variety, Playwire and Hypebeast here domestically. The bulk of this revenue flows offshore which is why you see them having only ~$335k in net profit. The average growth of 125% they’ve seen the past two years? It was simply bringing on board new US publications with very little of it flowing through to their bottom line. Girgis could’ve doubled their net profit if he’d taken a pay and chosen to invest back into the business.
If you actually look at the traffic to The Brag’s owned and operated publications on IPSOS or SimilarWeb the brands are tiny.
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