Fresh from its own merger with Fairfax Media, Nine has announced the merger of youth publisher Pedestrian.TV and Allure Media.
Pedestrian.TV will integrate Allure Media’s publishing assets including Business Insider Australia, Gizmodo, Kotaku and POPSUGAR into the Pedestrian Group.
The combined Pedestrian Group will be run by its founders, Chris Wirasinha and Oscar Martin.
As part of the changes, Allure Media’s existing operations will be restructured, with Allure CEO Jason Scott (pictured above) – who has held the role for more than five years – leaving as the two businesses combine operations.
This change has led to a number of redundancies within Allure Media, the majority within support functions across the business. These redundancies are some of the 92 that Nine flagged as a result of its merger with Fairfax.
Staff in the combined business will be co-located in Pedestrian.TV’s new Surry Hills offices from January 2019.
Allure Media was owned by Fairfax Media prior to its merger with Nine, while Pedestrian Group is fully owned by Nine.
Wirasinha said: “The past 13 years have been a wild ride for Pedestrian and we’re pumped to welcome Allure Media into the family to create a clear publishing leader for marketers wanting to target young Aussies.
“The Allure brands provide global insights combined with highly targeted and loyal local audiences around premium categories including business, technology, gaming, entertainment, fashion and beauty.
“The combination of the brands alongside Pedestrian’s existing commercial relationships that include Tinder and Big Flick Energy, and our new exciting TV partnership with 9Go!, will give advertisers unprecedented opportunities to reach more Millennials and Gen Zers than ever before.”
The announcement comes shortly after Nine revealed its new-look sales structure, along with three leadership changes to its news and current affairs teams.
