Junkee Media Goes After Gen Z With New Title

Youth publisher Junkee Media has announced the launch of a new title aimed at the Gen Z audience called Punkee.

The publisher revealed the new title during its annual upfront presentation at the Eternity Playhouse Theatre in Sydney this morning.

Punkee was prompted by Junkee Media’s annual research project which specifically focused on looking at the differences between Gen Z and Gen Y Australians, and showed there was a large gap in the market for a strong new digital Gen Z title.

Launching in May, Punkee will be headed up by managing editor Tom Pitney, who joined Junkee Media last year when it purchased TheVine, where he was owner and publisher.

Commenting on his new role, Pitney said: “I’m excited to be able to scale up the video content that our audience already loves and take it to the next level under the Punkee banner.

“Over the past 18 months, we’ve tested a whole range of ideas to understand what Gen Zs want to share and consume on social media. With these learnings, Junkee’s expertise and the growing base already behind us, we’re in a great position to introduce and grow a culture around Punkee.”

Junkee Media CEO Neil Ackland said the launch of Punkee continues the publisher’s track record of innovating in youth publishing.

“We look at Punkee as Junkee’s cheekier, younger sister,” he said.

“As Millennials move into the 20s and 30s, a gap has opened up to talk to the next generation in a unique and authentic way, just as Junkee does for Millennials.

“It’s up to us as leaders in youth publishing to keep innovating to stay ahead of the curve.”

In addition to an online platform, the Punkee brand and content will be amplified in digital out-of-home environments via oOh!media’s screen portfolio.

Also announced at today’s upfront were significant changes to Junkee Media’s flagship title, Junkee.

Effective from today, Junkee will have three new dedicated sections each with their own social communities: Politics Junkee (will be led by news and politics editor Osman Faruqi), Music Junkee (which will be headed up by editor Katie Cunningham) and Video Junkee.

Junkee Media publisher Tim Duggan said the new sections are driven by the audience’s interest in the key pillars and expanding the main brand.

“We can see clearly from our research and audience engagement that these are three of the fastest-growing content areas for us to go deeper on,” he said.

Junkee is also launching a new major event in partnership with Destination NSW called Video Junkee 2017 – a two-day festival in Sydney celebrating creativity in video content that will take over Carriageworks from 28 to 30 July.

Former Tropfest festival and development Manager Henry Kalaf has joined Junkee Media as executive producer of Video Junkee.

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