News Corp Australia acquires major stake in video company, Visual Domain
News Corp Australia has taken a majority stake in Visual Domain, one a full service video production company, founded by Renece Brewster and Daniel Goldstein in 2008.
News Corp Australasia executive chairman, Michael Miller, said the investment would add another strategic offering to the company’s growing commercial content business.
Visual Domain, founder’s Renece Brewster and Daniel Goldstein
During FY2021, News Corp reported its “most profitable” financial year, in its current form, with revenues rising 4% in the full year and up 30% in the fourth quarter. Revenues were US$9.36 billion, compared to US$9.01 billion in the prior year.
“We are developing world-class content creation and production capabilities across the business to better serve our clients’ marketing needs,” said Miller.
“Video production is a significant and growing component of the content we create. This investment in Visual Domain with its experienced in-house team and full service offering, from livestream events to high-end television commercials and social media, provides News Corp Australia with immediate scale in video production to better serve our clients business goals and the increased demand for these capabilities. We are delighted to welcome the Visual Domain team into the News Corp Australia family.”
News Corp Australia’s managing director, commercial content Mike Connaghan said the investment in Visual Domain was part of the company’s strategy to build a high performance portfolio of content marketing capabilities.
Connaghan commented: “We were already working with Visual Domain and were impressed by their creativity, efficiency and ability to match the pace of the news cycle while also dealing with bigger, longer form creative projects.
“With the demand for video only escalating, bringing our businesses together allows us to better meet our clients’ growing digital, content and integrated marketing needs, providing us with even more opportunity to flex our creative muscle.”
Visual Domain CEO, Renece Brewster, said: “We work with over 600 clients every year as their partner in production and we work hard to ensure we are proud of every single project. We are excited for our growth to continue both in Australia and globally as part of the News Corp Australia business.
“Video content has taken on new context over the last 18 months playing a meaningful role in allowing brands to connect with their audiences and we’re so thrilled to be able to bring this medium to an even greater audience as a result of this deal.”
Visual Domain co-founder Daniel Goldstein added: “It’s been an incredible journey and we’re so proud of our talented team of 100 plus creatives and what we have been able to achieve over the last 13 years. We are thrilled to be starting this new chapter with News Corp Australia.”
