Vinyl looking to snap up more mastheads
Vinyl boss Simons: Still losing money, but closing the gap?
Media and technology group Vinyl is not done acquiring and is looking to add one or two mastheads to its publishing portfolio over the next year.
During its Annual General Meeting, Vinyl — which is primarily music and culture based, and owns titles such as Rolling Stone Australia and Concrete Playground — also apparently backpedalled on an end-of-year EBITDA break even goal, instead saying it will become cashflow positive.
CEO Josh Simons told the AGM the company was looking to acquire niche and international publishers exiting the market.
“We want to keep increasing our assets … we have the potential to add another 1-2 mastheads over the next 12 months,” said Simons. The group’s revenue rise over the past two years has been fuelled by tech and publisher acquisitions: Brag Media, Mediaweek, Funkified, Serenade and Concrete Playground.
Vinyl doesn’t “own” Rolling Stone Australia – it licenses it.
At the AGM, Simons said Vinyl was “a technology company at heart” and that a unique point of difference was a proprietary AI tech stack that would allow it to automate mundane editorial tasks.
Wow red flag