BotW: Bad week for publishing; Good week for Paramount?; Bad week for Disrupt Radio; Bad behaviour at Mediaweek

Welcome to Best of the Week, written early today at the tail end of Unmade’s week-long publishing break. In the end, there was too much going on to leave things til next week. Today: Nine closes most of its youth-focused publishing operation; Paramount will get a new proprietor after all; and Disrupt Radio misses its funding target as its ratings fall to zero in Melbourne and Brisbane.

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Nine dials back its digital publishing ambitions

There’s an unwritten rule in the language of Australia’s media cuts: If it’s bad news, the subject line in the PR email will be vague. On Monday lunchtime, “Pedestrian and nine.com.au staff announcements” spelled truly bad news. Most of the titles within Nine’s youth-focused digital publishing arm Pedestrian Group, wth the exception of Pedestrian itself, have been closed. While Nine didn’t put an official number on it, dozens of jobs have gone.

That includes consumer tech site Gizmodo, gaming site Kotaku and productivity site Lifehacker. Vice, Refinery29 and blockchain site Chainsaw also face the axe.