Vinyl Group snaps up Time Out Australia
Vinyl Group (ASX:VNL) acquired Print & Digital Publishing Pty Ltd and its Time Out Australia brand for nominal consideration, taking control later this month under a five-year franchise agreement with Time Out England.
The deal comes 24 hours after Vinyl picked up Nine's Pedestrian Group, also for nominal consideration. Nine had paid $48.6m for Pedestrian.TV between 2015 and 2018. At its peak, Pedestrian.TV was valued at $100m.
Vinyl raised $2.4m at $0.054 per share, a 10% discount to the June 5 close. The raise was led by an unnamed top 10 shareholder. Wisetech founder Richard White owns approximately 40% of the business.
What the numbers look like
Time Out Australia is currently profitable. Vinyl says it will be earnings accretive in FY27, with positive EBITDA contribution on a pro forma basis.
Vinyl will pay ongoing revenue royalties to Time Out England with a minimum annual guarantee. Specific numbers were not disclosed.
The $2.4m raise covers integration costs, working capital, and near-term operational initiatives across the expanded portfolio: Time Out Australia, Pedestrian.TV, Concrete Playground (acquired late 2024 for $5m), BuzzFeed, Rolling Stone AU/NZ, and Mediaweek.
The broader play
Vinyl spent $10.5m in March 2026 to acquire Val Morgan Digital from Hoyts, which publishes BuzzFeed and PopSugar in Australia.
The company is consolidating ANZ digital media assets at fire-sale prices. Nine walked away from a $48.6m investment. Time Out England offloaded a profitable local operation for nominal consideration.
What this means for sales teams
Media consolidation usually means sales org changes: unified pitch decks, territory realignment, and CRM migrations. If you are selling into this space or work in media sales, watch for integration timelines and who owns the client relationships post-merger.
Vinyl is building a portfolio play. That typically means centralised sales operations within 12 months.