Vinyl Media announces promotions as it looks for ‘operational efficiency’
Neil Griffiths is now editor-in-chief across all of Vinyl Media (Vinyl Group)
Vinyl Group’s publishing arm, Vinyl Media, has announced a series of internal promotions and structural changes as it races to achieve breakeven before the end of the year.
The changes include the promotion of Batoul Peters to chief business officer, Jack Castles to head of commercial partnerships, ANZ, and Neil Griffiths to editor-in-chief across Vinyl Media and Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
The changes come not long after Mumbrella revealed a series of redundancies across the organisation as it looked for a path to profit. Vinyl’s full year reporting for FY2025 showed an EBITDA loss of $10m. It is this number that the company has stated will be zero or positive by the end of the December quarter.
Peters, now chief business officer, joined what was then known as The Brag Media in 2023 as head of national client partnerships. She then became head of partnerships across ANZ, and then head of commercial operations for Vinyl Media.
In her new role, she will oversee business and commercial operations across the publisher’s owned and operated titles including Rolling Stone AU/NZ, Concrete Playground and Refinery29.
Castles also joined in 2023 as a partnerships manager. He’s held various roles since then, including most recently as head of partnerships across NSW. Mumbrella understands Dane Robertson, head of partnerships across Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, recently departed the business.
Neil Griffiths, meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone AU/NZ, will take on additional responsibility as editor-in-chief across all of Vinyl Media. The company said this means he will oversee content strategy across all owned and operated mastheads, shaping editorial direction, brand voice and audience engagement.
Griffiths was previously the managing editor at Mumbrella.
Batoul Peters and Jack Castles have been promoted at Vinyl Media (Mediaweek)
Sarah Chapman has been promoted from general manager of Mediaweek to head of editorial operations, where she will “focus on streamlining workflows, strengthening consistency, and fostering collaboration across Vinyl Media’s editorial ecosystem”.
Vinyl Group said it had also made a series of additional promotions to recognise excellence across its streamlined operations, however didn’t provide further details.
Vinyl Media and Group CEO, Josh Simons, said: “The first half of this year saw our investment in publishing pay off, with multi-platform views up almost 250%. With this inventory secured and growing, the next phase will be about increasing our content output and scaling our revenue streams. We look forward to expanding on this alongside the imminent launch of our AI strategy.”
Peters added: “This restructure is about sharpening focus ahead of the Christmas sprint and ensuring we have the right people in the right roles to deliver strong outcomes for our brand partners and audiences. Each of these team members has demonstrated the initiative, creativity, and rigour we need for this next phase.”
