Tech and culture news websites including Vice, Gizmodo, Refinery29, Kotaku and Lifehacker will no longer publish in Australia, with dozens of jobs to be cut as the Pedestrian Group undergoes restructuring and cost cutting.
The company, which is owned by Nine, licenses the brands to republish in Australia, as well as producing their own local content under the same banner. Pedestrian took control of the longstanding publications as part of the merger between Nine and Fairfax in 2019.
Staff were informed on Monday in an email from the CEO of the Pedestrian Group, Matt Rowley, that despite Pedestrian Group being a “highly successful business” the company had decided to end its use of brand licences and focus on wholly owned brands, including Pedestrian.
“We’ve made the tough decision to focus on our wholly owned Pedestrian brands where we control the strategy, the content, the product, the sales and the outcome – the entire business,” he said. “This will have an impact on roles within the group and I appreciate the uncertainty this change creates, so we will be in contact immediately with those people.”
He blamed the licence partners facing financial headwinds and corporate instability, as well as a decline in the broader advertising market and the growth of TikTok and Instagram as part of the decision.
Rowley said he would also exit Nine as a result of the changes after the transition period, with a new CEO to be appointed.
Staff at the publications expressed their love for the work and their sadness that it was coming to an end.
“It’s been one of the great joys of my life to wake up every day and run a site I love with all my heart,” Kotaku Australia’s managing editor, David Smith, posted on X.
“We were the second-highest read site in the group after [Pedestrian TV] and we still had so much we wanted to do. The plans I had were just getting started. Alas.”
“I loved Gizmodo Australia. I gave it my all, I built a strong EV coverage pillar, and this happens,” Gizmodo Australia writer Zachariah Kelly said.
It is understood affected staff were locked out of the brand social media accounts and the content-management system after the announcement, per Nine’s standard practice.
Nine reported Pedestrian employs about 95 staff, with up to 40 jobs to go as a result of the change, with some potentially redeployed. It said the cuts were on top of the 90 jobs to go from Nine’s publishing division announced last month.
The CEO of Nine Entertainment, Mike Sneesby, told staff the decision had been made due to the “economic headwinds” facing the media industry and “tough decisions” would be made by mid-July to save the company $30m. Staff at Nine passed a no-confidence motion against Sneesby after the announcement.
The director of Nine.com.au, Kerri Elstub, also announced to staff on Monday that as part of cost management the company had decided not to replace a small number of existing vacant roles in the video and news teams.
The shuttering of the local operations of Gizmodo, Kotaku and Lifehacker follows the shutdown of local versions of tech site rivals ZDNet, CNET and Gamespot, which parent company Red Ventures closed down in 2022.
* Josh Taylor was a reporter for ZDNet from 2010 to 2015