Ooh Media completes sale of Junkee Media to Racat Group
ASX-listed Ooh Media has sold Junkee Media to Racat Group after Ooh Media flagged its intention to sell the youth publication back in July.
Junkee Media joins Racat’s portfolio of publishing, production and digital assets which includes Australian Geographic, game developer and publisher Runaway Play as well as Northern Pictures, the production company behind TV shows such as Love on the Spectrum, Hardball and Lukewarm Sex.
Piers Grove
Ooh Media will retain Junkee Studio, which will be relaunched as a part of a new creative proposition in early 2022.
Ooh Media bought 85% of Junkee back in 2016 for $11.05m. Junkee Media appointed Gyan Yankovich as its managing editor in late 2020 following the appointment of Robb Stott to editorial director, in a move that saw Tim Duggan step back from the business to become its editor-at-large.
Junkee Media’s editorial, sales and implementation teams will move across to Racat as part of the transaction.
Junkee Media will be headed up at Racat by media entrepreneur Piers Grove, who is one of the founders and publisher of satirical news site Betoota Advocate.
Grove said: “It will be a huge thrill and responsibility to lead Junkee in the months and years to come. Our mission at Racat is to own and operate media companies that in one way or another add something to our world and Junkee does exactly that. We are huge fans of Junkee’s brands, its loyal audiences and the huge array of content it delivers every day. We value the exceptional team that make Junkee the go-to news and entertainment source for millions of young Australians every month.”
Racat executive director David Haslingeden added: “Junkee is a business we are excited to invest in growing and expanding to meet its audience in new and responsive ways.”
Ooh Media chief content, marketing and creative officer Neil Ackland said: “As a co-founder of Junkee it was critically important we found the right business that is aligned to its core values. I know that RACAT will be a wonderful home for the team and I’m excited to watch them and Piers take it to new heights. My journey with Junkee now comes to an end as I continue with oOh! and I want to thank the brilliant Junkee team for their outstanding work and wish them and RACAT every success in the future.”
The commercial terms are not material to Ooh Media Limited’s reporting obligations and are not being disclosed.
Jacanda Capital was the lead adviser to Ooh Media on this transaction.
I’d love to know why Pedestrian seems to have worked so well for Nine, but Junkee has failed for OOH Media.
What were the differences?
Was it that Nine is a content company and ‘gets’ that part of it? Did OOH have a plan for Junkee that was poorly executed? Has Junkee lost key talent or something?
It’s such a shame as both Pedestrian and Junkee were wonderful stories of great local businesses doing well against the backdrop of the Buzzfeed empires and similar. Really hope they continue to do so and this isn’t the death knell for Australian media startups, too.
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