Val Morgan shuts The Latch, Brian Florido departs
Brian Florido is moving on from Val Morgan Digital
Val Morgan Digital (VMD) has shut down in-house masthead The Latch and let managing director Brian Florido go after 6 years.
While Val Morgan put out a statement on Monday morning labelling the move “a leadership change”, it is understood Florido’s departure is a redundancy.
Mumbrella has reported on the wave of cutbacks hitting the industry, particularly at senior levels, as ad spend tightens.
Florido is an experienced digital MD with strong commercial roots, having been hired to found and scale VMD from a similar role at Pedestrian.
Prior to the Pedestrian MD role, he was Pedestrian’s commercial director for close to seven years. He has also worked at OMD and Zenith.
Val Morgan Digital’s strategy had been to develop its own content network – under The Latch brand – combined with content partnerships with titles such as Popsugar and Ladbible.
With The Latch site unresponsive, Val Morgan confirmed it had been decomissioned.
The Latch’s Facebook page
“The Latch shut down on September 30,” it said in a written statement.
“This was a difficult decision for the business; however, our strategy is to focus on driving growth through our global publishing brands – LADbible, BuzzFeed, Tasty, Fandom, and POPSUGAR, delivering maximum scale coupled with intelligent targeting for brands.”
A spokesperson also recognised Florido’s achievements and said the business remained committed to Val Morgan Digital.
“Val Morgan has announced a leadership change today with Brian Florido departing from his role as Managing Director of the Val Morgan Digital business.
“During his time, he transformed Val Morgan Digital into Australia’s leading digital youth publisher, driving significant revenue growth and building a network of local and international publishing brands that reach over 9 million Australians every month. We would like to thank Brian for his contributions and wish him continued success in the future.
“Our commitment to Val Morgan Digital continues as it remains an integral part of our broader Val Morgan network and business strategy.”
The latest Standard Media Index (SMI) data for agency ad spend backs up the idea of a significant downturn in spending, with preliminary numbers for August showing a decline of close to 8% compared to August 2024.
It is important to note that number may improve as late bookings are registered in coming months – a similarly dire picture in May has now improved to around even YOY with late bookings.
Senior figures in the marketing and media world have opened up to Mumbrella on the difficulties faced following redundancy, and the expertise challenge facing the industry.
See Amber Scotto Di Perta’s interview on the Mumbrellacast for a personal insight into the redundancy wave.
This story has been modifed from first publication to include the statement from Val Morgan and reflect the official shutdown of The Latch.
