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Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. Today: As Vinyl Group this morning announces yet another acquisition, we talk to CEO Josh Simons about the bust-up that saw the ousting of Brag Media co-founder Luke Girgis, and the background to his opportunistic acquisition of Mediaweek.If you've been thinking about upgrading to an Unmade membership, this is the perfect time. Your membership includes:* A complimentary ticket to all of Unmade's events, including HumAIn (2025), REmade (next week), Unlock (31 October), and Compass (November);* Member-only content and our paywalled archives;* Your own copy of Media Unmade. ‘I stand behind the acquisition every day of the week': Vinyl boss Josh Simons on the bumpy Brag Media buyoutAmong the bosses of Australia's ASX-listed media companies, nobody has had a more random path to the hot seat than Josh Simons. From the lead singer of rock band Buchanan, Simons went on to found Vampr, a social networking site for the music industry, before seeing that acquired by the company he went on to head, Vinyl Group.Simons was the architect of Vinyl's $8m+ purchase of the Brag Media group, publisher of The Brag and local editions of Rolling Stone and Variety among others, at the start of the year.The initial plan was for Vinyl Group to be a portfolio company with its Brag Media arm run separately to its music platform interests. But that quickly fell over, with the less-than-amicable departure of Brag Media co-founder Luke Girgis five months after the takeover.That left Simons taking what he describes in today's interview with Unmade's Tim Burrowes as “a masterclass in media” as he relocated from Melbourne and took charge of the Brag Media publishing operation.That's included a lesson in the publishing etiquette around journalistic independence. Simons concedes that he was “naive” when he took control adding: “I'm not dogmatic in terms of my views on things. And I think it's important to be able to know when you've said something stupid.”Vinyl Group, with a market capitalisation of a little under $92m, is behind only Nine, Domain, Ooh Media, Seven West Media, ARN Media and Southern Cross Austereo when it comes to local ASX-listed media companies. When it comes to the narrower business of publishing, Vinyl is fourth if you also include the dual-listed News Corp. As Simons observes dryly: “It's not lost on my parents.”During the interview, Simons offers few clues about what led to the ousting of Girgis, although he hints: “We had to invest in areas that were previously just not being invested in. We needed to bring journalists in.”Hires have included Lars Brandle as head of content, and promoting former Daily Mail and Cartology executive Jess Hunter to head of Brag Media. Since recording the interview, editor-in-chief Poppy Reid who was part of the Girgis era, announced her exit.Earlier this month, Vinyl Group completed the fire sale acquisition of Mediaweek for just $1m after owner Trent Thomas was forced to sell the title following allegations of harassment towards staff. The timing and price of the deal was, Simons says, “almost too good to be true”. The integration is being overseen by Vinyl Group's chief operating officer Joel King.Simons hints there are more media acquisitions in the entertainment space to come, including overseas. Asked about the fact that Vinyl Group's tech platforms are global while the media companies are local, he notes: “Rome wasn't built in a day. We've got broad, ambitious plans for global. Rest assured that we're looking around the world to find teams that might add value in any of those areas inside the media part of Vinyl.”As we were publishing this morning, Vinyl Group announced to the ASX that it has agreed to buy event and brand activation agency Funkified from founder Gus Stephenson for $2.5m. Funkified has been Brag Media's in-house events supplier since 2021. It had a turnover of $4m and EBITDA profit of $430,000 in the last financial year. In the interview, Simons also fleshes out his strategy for Vinyl Group, which as well as Vampr includes music credits database Jaxsta and online retail platform Vinyl. The job of the media arm is to fund investment in the company's (so far) loss-making tech. “Our media company now is really the engine that allows us to invest in technology. In the past, we've seen media companies try and buy tech companies, and it hasn't worked out so well. And so what we're trying here is buying media companies to fuel tech.”Despite being an ASX-listed company, Vinyl Group's shareholder register is dominated by a handful of wealthy investors including WiseTech Global founder Richard White and Songrtradr boss Paul Wiltshire.Says Simons: “I'm quite calm and optimistic about where everything's at.” Asked whether Vinyl Group still belongs on the ASX, he adds, intriguingly: “Yeah. Especially if you knew what I know.”* Declaration of interest: Via his super fund, Tim Burrowes owns shares in most of Australia's listed media companies, including Vinyl Group.Inflation relief lifts Unmade IndexThe Unmade Index bounced yesterday as the market absorbed improving inflation numbers. The index - which tracks Australia's listed media and marketing companies - grew by 1.5% to 449.3 points - outperforming the wider ASX All Ordinaries which grew by 0.15% yesterday.Among the larger stocks, Nine saw the biggest lift, up by 2.44%.In the audio space, ARN Media and Southern Cross Austereo grew by 1.6% and 1.1%, while radio company Sports Entertainment Group lost 5.5%.Today's podcast was edited by Abe's Audio.As we count down to next week's REmade conference, we'll be back with a retail media-led edition of Unmade tomorrow.Have a great day.Toodlepip…Tim BurrowesPublisher - Unmadetim@unmade.media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe
The band is back together! PJ Johnson drops in to join Conor O'Malley, & Bill Buckingham. Once done catching up on PJ's personal life we dive into the recently concluded Egyptian Open. The trio debates the new PSA directives, player conduct, and the challenges faced by returning athletes like Amanda Sobhy and Joelle King. They also preview the upcoming Paris Open and highlight key matches and players to watch. The show wraps up with a lighthearted discussion about the upcoming National Squash League (NSL) Legends showdown. 01:47 PJ Johnson Returns 04:02 Golf and Squash: Finding the Balance 05:11 The Egyptian Open: Highlights and Controversies 06:32 The New Directive: A Double-Edged Sword 13:14 Olympics and Squash: Is It Worth the Change? 25:58 Players Taking Ownership? 26:10 Lessons from Rugby Refereeing 26:47 Referees Adapting to New Directives 31:14 Preview of the Paris Open 31:54 Amanda and Joel King's Comeback 32:58 Challenges of Returning from Injury 37:56 Men's Draw Analysis 41:58 Women's Draw Analysis 45:46 National Squash League Legends Match 48:58 Differentiating Squash Events 51:44 Concluding Remarks Download, share, subscribe! Thanks for listening! REACH OUT: FAN FOLLOW UP Don't forget, send in your fan questions or comments and might share them on air. So reach out us on social media or email squashradio@gmail.com. As always, thanks for listening!
Smashing Perth Glory, How The Side Wants To Play, Women's Side Into The Grand Final Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gossip Gay Joel King-Mayne joined Rach & Dean to wrap up the hot LGBTQ+ news stories from the year that was 2023. Here are the top 15 headline stories we... LEARN MORE The post Gossip Gay Wrapped for 2023 with Joel King-Mayne appeared first on JOY Breakfast.
On the show today - Who is Australia's biggest athlete on the world stage? And have the Bulldogs recruited well for 2024? Plus, BBL GM Alistair Dobson, SENZ Mornings host Ian Smith, Roosters NRLW star Jess Sergis & Sydney FC defender, Joel King. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sydney FC defender Joel King joined Matty to discuss their indifferent start to the year, his whirlwind `18 months, playing under Ufuk Talay & their match this Saturday against Perth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It's a Monday, so that means JOY Weekly's Joel King-Mayne stops by JOY Breakfast to get our Gossip Gay on, as we talk Troye Sivan officially becoming a 1st Time... LEARN MORE The post Gossip Gay with Joel King-Mayne appeared first on JOY Breakfast.
Our resident gossip gay Joel King-Mayne dives into this weeks hottest gay news including Miriam Margolyes learning to accept them/they pronouns thanks to Aussie film and tv star Zoe Terakes... LEARN MORE The post Joel King-Mayne's Gossip Gay Nov 6 appeared first on JOY Breakfast.
I sit down with the ELECTRIC King Bau to discuss fighting, world issues, and his call out of Jimmy Kimmel after his latest win! SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG2bnyKIRVBjDd1NxV2ffZw LISTEN ON: ITUNES: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-happens-here-podcast/id1526741720?uo=4 SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/5OSGZ9mlURaY9wl3qJmbHZ CASTBOX: https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Marcus-Deegan-Show-id3565852?country=us PODCAST ADDICT: https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3171187 ADD US ON: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/marcusdeegan FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/themarcusdeeganshow WEBSITE: https://www.marcusdeegan.com
DIA MUNDIAL DEL SKATE COSTA RICA 2016 GO SKATEBOARDING DAY COSTA RICA 2016 Esto fue lo sucedido el pasado Junio. Celebramos en Costa Rica el dia mundial de las patinetas. Miles de compadres rodando por todo San Jose. A Patinar todos los dias. REALIZACIÓN Realización Nasional Skateboards https://www.facebook.com/NSBCR/ https://www.instagram.com/nasionalsb/ http://www.youtube.com/c/NasionalSb José Carlos Hernandez / Fotógrafo DIRECCION Valdo CAMARA & EDICIÓN Valdo Música Los Crveles "macabra salome" https://loscrveles.bandcamp.com https://www.facebook.com/loscrveles - Joel King (voz & Guitarra) - Josue Arguedas (bateria) PATINADORES Jaxel Tijerino Kevin Pereira
Join us today as we welcome the man that broke the internet, twice!! Welcome to the show, Joel "King Bau" Bauman!
Australia's Joel King relives the moment he found out he'd been picked for the World Cup. And we hear from James Chamanga, the 42 year old striker from Zambia who's still banging in the goals. Picture on website: Joel King of the Socceroos in action against Japan. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
2022 got itself off to a flyer for Joel King, with a surprise Socceroos debut and transfer to Denmark arriving in a matter of weeks. On episode three of the Socceroos Podcast: Aussies Abroad Edition, host Chris Curulli catches up with the young fullback to see how life is treating him in Europe. The show also includes stories from King's time with the Olyroos at Tokyo 2020, the lessons learned rising through the ranks at Sydney FC and his first taste of the Socceroos setup this year.
Guest speaker Joel King shares from Luke 10: If we take the Lordship of Jesus seriously then we must surrender our selfishness and time to learn and love those around us. This week we learn that there is no way to believe in Jesus and not join Him in His mission to bring our neighbors into His presence.
The guest on today's edition of The Unmade podcast is Luke Girgis, CEO of The Brag Media, which has quickly become the dominant publisher in the Australian music industry.He talks to Unmade's Tim Burrowes about how The Brag Media came about, why they eventually passed on buying Junkee, and how Variety will be the company's bridgehead into the screen industry.Transcript:Tim Burrowes:Welcome to unmade. I'm Tim Burrowes. My guest today is Luke Girgis, the CEO of Brag Media. Luke, welcome along. Now the reason for chatting this week is you've just picked up the Australian franchise of the very storied business title, Variety, and we will talk about that in a minute. But firstly, I'd love to just talk a bit about the story of Brag Media, because it feels like in a very short time, you've gone very fast. How do you tell the story so far?Luke Girgis:Well, before that, Tim, I just want to give you a bit of a credit for Unmade. How long have you been doing Unmade for?Tim Burrowes:Unmade, we started back in September, properly. So I guess that's about pretty much nine months.Luke Girgis:Crazy. I'm so impressed with how you've built it in nine months. It's actually incredible. It's the thing that I read every time it hits my inbox. So huge credit to you.Tim Burrowes:Ah, you're very kind. Thank you.Luke Girgis:Brag Media I started in 2017, and was actually an idea that I had when I worked at a record company because I saw how much money, how much of our marketing budget we were spending on publishers promoting records. And I thought, these publishers are kind of underperforming and I wonder how much it would cost to actually just buy them and run them ourselves, maybe turn them profitable and then have this asset that is profitable on its own. But it also allows us to market our artists through for free. And I kind of did some maths and we could buy one or two of them at kind of two years our marketing budget. And I thought, this feels like a no brainer. Maybe I'm stupid.Luke Girgis:So I put together a business plan, worked on it for about three months, took it to my boss. She told me to get fucked, and I did, and met my co-founder Sam Benjamin. We looked at a lot of things. We even looked at starting festivals, running management businesses, running a record label. We looked at a whole bunch of these things, but ultimately, we thought, we want to do it all. The Brag Media's mission is to be ubiquitous with Australian culture, be at the center of culture.Luke Girgis:So if we want to live to that mission, we need to do it all. We need to be running events. We need to be running record companies. We need to be managing talent. We need to be doing all these things. And if we have a thriving publishing business at the center of all of that, it's going to make all of those other plays a lot more fruitful. And that's what we started with. We started with the publishing business.Tim Burrowes:Now that's really interesting, because I presume from that, by coming at it from that direction, would be different to someone coming from a more traditional publishing background who would probably start with, okay, display advertising, what revenue can we bring from that? Paid audience, where can we bring from that? Whereas I presume you are thinking much more laterally around what people would loosely call content marketing budgets, and that sort of thing. So I imagine your kind of revenue streams probably look quite different to the traditional.Luke Girgis:Yeah. That's certainly what I've learned. I didn't kind of know that coming into it. When I first started, I remember day one, Poppy Reid, our editor in chief, I remember going, "Wait, what's the difference between editing and subediting?" I didn't know anything. And so we've built this what business, which appears to be, relatively speaking, super diversified in publishing and media, with it. And it's really defensible as well. I feel like it'd be very hard to come in and compete with what we've built.Luke Girgis:And yeah, we certainly survived COVID, which is a huge win, and even just surviving it's great, but we've actually grew 200% year on year in revenue. So that all seemed to have been possible because of maybe my ignorance in publishing. And I didn't go that traditional route, but it wasn't like ... I don't feel like a genius for it. I just didn't know any different.Tim Burrowes:Luke, honestly, when you try something new in publishing, not being aware that the world would consider it a bad idea is sometimes quite a big advantage, I know I've discovered in the past sometimes. So where are you at now in terms of scale? I know it's not the ultimate measure, particularly when you use freelancers, but what's your current kind of staff number, for instance?Luke Girgis:I think full time we have about 25, but a lot of casuals and a lot of freelancers. That's probably a question for Poppy Reid and Joel King, but yeah, it feels about 25, I think.Tim Burrowes:So I'm guessing you must have a turnover, what? Sort of four or five million or something like that?Luke Girgis:I don't know if Sam Benjamin, my co-founder wants me to disclose that, but it's well more than that. It's a lot more than that.Tim Burrowes:Right. Okay. Well, you can't blame me for having a little guess, as well.Luke Girgis:Oh, I would've had a swing too.Tim Burrowes:Okay. Well, let's talk about Variety, which is the latest member of the stable. And this is interesting, because Variety as we would think of it from the US, its sweet spot was of the screen industry and of Hollywood. So it's a sort of new, or at the very least kind of peripheral addition for you. Because up to now I guess your center spot, although general entertainment, has been around the music industry. So why does Variety make sense?Luke Girgis:So you are right on that. We're kind of famous for our music. That's how we started. But it's certainly not where we're at now. So we have a huge gaming network as well. The Variety launch makes sense when you understand that sort of mission statement to be ubiquitous with Australian culture. We want to be everywhere Australians' passion points are. We identified that music was the number one interest for Australians. So that's where we started. Also helps that I'm a music nut, and have been in the music industry for 15 years.Luke Girgis:But we started with music. That's what we're experts in. Then we've expanded out into gaming and we have a really strong gaming network with the acquisition of Epic Digital, and we've also got fashion now with HYPEBEAST. And so the next frontier is screen. It is film. And we've been wrapping Variety for about a year now, just monetizing the Australian traffic. You might need to fact check me on this. I've got to get the exact numbers, but it's about a million Australians already read Variety every month.Luke Girgis:I think it might be 800,000. Something like that. I should have checked before we got on this call, but a lot of Australians read it already. And we've seen a lot of success commercially with the Variety brand without us even publishing one story. So the adding Variety, adding screen to our stable, when you think about what our mission is and the commercial success we've already had with that brand, doesn't seem as left field as I think it's maybe internally as it might seem externally.Tim Burrowes:Yeah. And something I'd be interested to get your thoughts on is, when I think about the sector, I have slight post-traumatic stress disorder from earlier in my time when I was one of the owners of Mumbrella, we bought Encore, which was the Australian version of Variety, I suppose. So even back in the day, we actually wrecked Variety ourselves for a while, actually. So we were always glad when they did their Australian edition in the kind of US version of Hollywood. And we got to sell in all those full page ads for the Australian studios.Tim Burrowes:But something we found, and ... I look back now and I would describe the way we came to it slightly arrogant, that we felt we knew the communications industry quite well. And this felt like a bit of a parallel world, that we wrote about, certainly, on the screen content already. And I guess remember I got this sense that certainly the Australian screen industry was very, very clubby, and it felt like there was this real attitude of, well, who the hell are you? You've not been in the production sector for 20 years. So what are your kind of credentials for writing about and being of this world?Tim Burrowes:And it felt like we never actually got to a point where we were particularly accepted as of that industry. So I guess the question is, how are you thinking about breaking into that world?Luke Girgis:When was that? What year was all of that happening?Tim Burrowes:This would've been long before streaming. So you were talking, I'm going to guess about 2012, 2013, something like that, long enough ago that we were still in print.Luke Girgis:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think the industry's changed a lot since then. It's only in terms of revenue, like 1.9 billion dollars in production in Australia last year. It's just insane. There's never been more money in Australia in this industry. Therefore, it's never been bigger. So potentially you might be right, that it is very clubby. The music industry is enormous here, and it is very clubby. But I think we're navigating that in two ways. One, we are ... I'm not going to be a Variety writer, I can promise you. We've got some real industry experts contributing and on staff.Luke Girgis:And Jake, our B2B trade editor, is editing Variety. And he's been a passionate fan of this brand for as long as I've known him, which is about a decade. He always talks about Variety and said one day he dreams to work with Variety. And it's just so happened that he is now. And that's exciting. So we have industry experts working on it, but the market is so different now, Tim. Back in the day, it was all very small industry in terms of market cap and revenue and all of that.Luke Girgis:So there is a lot more room for politics to disrupt things, but when there's so much money being put into an industry, and there are some great trade blogs out there and trade websites out there. But there's nothing as iconic and as widely respected as Variety in the Australian market right now. I mean, in the world, really. It's the most respected screen publication in the world. So to bring that to Australia, I think with where the industry is now, versus when you guys were representing it, we're just very fortunate of timing, I think, is the answer. And we're very excited about that.Tim Burrowes:And I suppose that's certainly true. If there's one story of the screen industry over the last, well, probably 30 or 40 years, has been, it feels like it's kind of feast or famine. There were some amazing tax breaks for the screen industry in the seventies. Right now, of course, we're in this kind of golden period of production funding because there's so much streaming investment going on at the moment, which feels like what's driving the screen sector.Tim Burrowes:Now that arguably over-investment in streaming is perhaps peaking now. Does the plan for Variety work as well with a smaller industry, if it turns out it is moving to the other side of the cycle?Luke Girgis:If it retracts, yeah. Look, the thing that we learned with launching music publications, and I think we're going to take a lot of lessons from that, is that if we were relying on the music industry to fund our music titles, we would've died like everybody else. And so, although it was true pre-COVID that 50% of our revenue came from the music industry, we have increased our revenue since then by over 200%, as I mentioned before. And now the revenue that comes from the music industry on our music titles represents less than 5%.Luke Girgis:And that was always our goal to get there. We were just trying to figure out how to achieve it, and we finally did. And I think that is the lens that we are looking at with Variety. We don't want to rely on the film industry or the screen industry to fund Variety. We want to focus on servicing it. Now, if revenue comes from that industry, fantastic. But that is not going to be how we live and die.Tim Burrowes:And I presume that will be some of the tap dance as well, is you refer to that maybe 800,000 number that you're getting in terms of visits. Now, clearly the industry itself isn't that big, which suggests quite a big consumer audience landing there because, hey, look, it's a world they're interested in as consumers. But presumably your sales model will be about having an audience of industry insiders, people working within the industry.Tim Burrowes:So how are you thinking about the sort of content you shoot for? Because presumably it'll be quite easy to just do, here's the latest trailer for the latest Marvel movies just dropped, and get some easy traffic. But that's not going to really garner you that audience of insiders. So how are you thinking about your focus on the editorial content?Luke Girgis:Yeah, so primarily, Variety's been around for 116 years servicing the screen industry and the professionals that live within it at the highest executive levels. So there is a certain type of content and certain level of detail and certain level of education and insight you need to provide to continue and engage those audience. And that is unwavering. But what I think has changed, and not changed actually, has been in addition to over the last maybe decade or so is that Variety has started engaging the most passionate and diehard film fans and bringing them into the tent as well.Luke Girgis:And then slowly turning sort of half interested film fans into diehard film fans. And so you have this highly passionate consumer audience, as well as the executive audience. And we do need to run ... that's not the same content obviously. But there is content, that you can run a piece of content that appeals to both audiences, but then you also need to run separate content lines that appeal to one and the other. And that's something that we are borrowing that strategy from the US to launch. And we will evolve that strategy as we get more data and more learnings for the Australian market.Tim Burrowes:And I take it that rather than just being fed by press releases, you'll look to break news. What sort of editorial resource are you putting behind that?Luke Girgis:I really wish Jake, our editor was on this call. So he's got the playbook. At a high level, we've got three incredible writers plus Jake on Variety, and a contributing team. So I don't know how big that contributing team is and what the details of it are. But there's a good team behind it and we're definitely going to launch with quality, not quantity. So you don't come to Variety for every time someone interesting kind of sneezes or whatever. That's not going to be our play. We're going to really launch with quality first, and then as we learn and as we grow, so will the volume of content that we produce.Tim Burrowes:And initially, it's digital, but there are plans for there to be a print edition as well.Luke Girgis:Absolutely, yeah. We've had a lot of success with the Rolling Stone print mag. So we are just going to take all the learnings from that.Tim Burrowes:And do you have a sense of how many editions a year you would hope to put out of the print version?Luke Girgis:Going to keep that sort of close to our chest for now, not because I want to keep things a secret, but we're still deciding. We will most likely do our first edition this year. So if you look at Rolling Stone, just a bit of a clue on how we're thinking about things, we do four issues a year with Rolling Stone, and one issue a year is our collector's edition. So first year, we did the 50 greatest Australian artists of all time. The second year, we did the 200 greatest albums of all time.Luke Girgis:Both of those issues outsold both in terms of advertisers and in terms of readers, and then new subscribers, I would say by a factor of five, at least. Again, I don't have the number on me, but it's just a massively out-sized return on those collector's editions. So it's that kind of learning and that kind of thinking that we're going to bring to Variety.Tim Burrowes:And it's worth mentioning that Rolling Stone and Variety have the same owner in the US, which is where you've done the franchise deal with.Luke Girgis:And that's why we have such confidence to keep investing with these guys, because they're in incredible. The PMC team in the US are an unbelievably professional and awesome team to work with. They are just so passionate about our success. So it's just so incredible. I've heard horror stories about JVing with international offices and licenses and whatever, and all those kind of different versions, many times. And I've just not experienced even a little bit of that with PMC. They're just an incredible company.Tim Burrowes:And what is this one? Is it a straight franchise arrangement or is it a JV?Luke Girgis:It's structured as a license, but a 30 year one. It's very long, with options to extend. So yeah, we're not going anywhere.Tim Burrowes:And you just share a portion of revenue, presumably, based on all of the activities of the brands?Luke Girgis:Yeah. So they have a bunch of obligations to us in terms of resource support, access, all of those things. And then we pay a percentage of our revenue back to them.Tim Burrowes:Which is a long time since I've done one of these deals. But back in the day, I seem to remember a number of like 8% or something. Is that still broadly the ballpark these conversations happen in?Luke Girgis:Yeah. The PMC NDA prevents me from confirming or denying, but I wouldn't say you are very far off, but yeah. I can't give you any extra in the comment.Tim Burrowes:And then a few other plans you've got include an awards, the Variety brand, and a power list as well.Luke Girgis:Yeah. Again, learning from what we are doing with Rolling Stone and our other brands, our events business is a meaningful part of our revenue growth. So we see the Variety brand as something that both consumers and trade are going to really resonate with. And that gives us a massive opportunity in events. And so we have a lot of plans for next year and over the next five years on how we're going to grow the Variety events business.Tim Burrowes:Now, you've mentioned a couple of times Poppy Reid, who leads the editorial output. I was watching a video stream she did a few weeks back for the Australian Institute of Music, where she talked about how you recruited her and how when you told her your plans for the company in the first place, she thought you were crazy. How did you change her mind?Luke Girgis:I don't know. I actually tried to talk her out of taking the job, to be honest. I was like, "Look, we might be bankrupt in six months. I don't know what I'm doing here." I was really nervous because ... it's very hard to get a senior journalist job in music. All she ever wanted to do in her life is write in music. And she had an incredible trade job. And I was like, "You're going to leave that security and come to me? I don't know what the hell I'm doing."Luke Girgis:But I think she is really driven by professional development and growth. And I think she felt like she sort of hit a ceiling where she was at, and she thought it was worth the risk to come over. I think, actually, I do know the answer. What she said to me was if I come over and we go bankrupt in six months, I will have learnt more in that six months than five more years where I am. She rolled the dice. I am so grateful she did. There's so much of this business that wouldn't exist without her. She runs the whole place. I'm just forever grateful that she took that chance, and how committed she is to the business.Tim Burrowes:Well, she also said in that chat that you want her to be the CEO. So what's the timeline for that?Luke Girgis:I wanted to give her the option. I don't know if she still has those kind of ambitions now. I think she's just really found her groove as an editor in chief, and I think she's also learned a lot of the b******t CEOs have to do, which she might not want to deal with. So I don't know. I guess that's an evolving thing. You have to ask her that, maybe in a different interview, but yeah. It's something that I was kicking around with her back in the day, for sure.Tim Burrowes:And you've obviously got your own appetite for entrepreneurialism beyond Brag Media as well, Lamp Post Capital. That's something else that you've done, which is a fund for making investments in startups. What's the model of Lamp Post?Luke Girgis:This is something I'm actually really excited about, and has a really interesting story. So our talent management division manages a creator by the name of Simone Giertz. She's based in LA. She's the largest female STEM creator on the planet. So she's got this enormous YouTube following. She's an inventor. She creates inventions and puts them on her channel, ends up on late shows, et cetera. A big fan of Simone is Alexis Ohanian, who is the Reddit founder. And he also happens to be married to Serena Williams, the tennis player.Luke Girgis:And when he was in Australia, I went down to Melbourne and had coffee with him, and was swapping notes about what he's doing and what I'm doing and all of that. And he had the idea of basically anchoring a fund that Simone and I would start. So he basically said, "Well, look, why don't you and Simone start a fund together? I will anchor it. I'll put in 500,000. You can make it a million dollar fund and raise another 500,000 on top of that, so it's a million dollar fund, and go out and see if you can find some incredible founders and support them to their success."Luke Girgis:Obviously, the appeal is that Simone, I mean, she's a genius. She's a lot smarter than me at a lot of things, both creatively, as well as in terms of all the inventions she does. In terms of products, she's amazing, but she also has this incredible creative brand. I always said if she wasn't a creator herself, she'd be an executive at a creative agency or something. So she's a genius in that sense. And then obviously I've got a lot of experience building businesses, and we have a really big media business here that could be very helpful to founders.Luke Girgis:So those two things combined, we go out and Simone and I try and find founders we love building incredible products that we think can go on to be icons of their industry, the Apple of whatever they're doing or the Tesla of whatever they're doing. And very early stage, pre-revenue, just building a product. Is there something here that could it be incredible? And if we both believe in it, then we'll bet on it. And we'll use our fund to invest in the company. It's not huge investments, so million dollar funds. Write checks of anything between 10 to 50,000.Luke Girgis:So it's not going to change anyone's life, but what we're saying is, "Hey, let us put a little bit of money in, and then also let us help you." And that's the value I think we can add. So it's more about the help we give than the money that we give. But-Tim Burrowes:And how many investments have you made so far?Luke Girgis:We have made three investments so far, two in the creator economy, one which is a company called Novel, whose slogan is, "The Shopify for NFT should just be on Shopify," and they've built a product to be able to just sell and create and buy NFTs in an incredibly user-friendly way. The other one is Fourthwall, which is like a Shopify competitor, but specifically built for creators. So Simone uses Fourthwall, because they're an unbelievable product. Herself and the biggest creators in the world use them.Luke Girgis:And then the last one is this company called Cana. I can explain it to you quickly, but you won't believe it. So everyone should just look it up. It is a drink printing machine that prints any drink you want in your kitchen with just putting in some water. It'll print beer, wine, coffee, juice, energy drinks. It is the most incredible futuristic thing I've ever seen. It will be bigger than the iPhone if they pull this off. And we've put a bet on that.Tim Burrowes:And these bets are not necessarily Australian companies. They could be global companies.Luke Girgis:Yeah. Those three are all American. Yeah.Tim Burrowes:Interesting. Do you see opportunities for investing within Australia?Luke Girgis:Absolutely. Yeah, I've been meeting with Australian founders, like all the time. We haven't made an investment yet, but I really want to, so if there's any Australian founders out there that send me an email, I'm very easy to find and I'd love to hear what you're working on.Tim Burrowes:And let's go back to Variety and Brag. And I suppose this as well, how do you think about managing conflict? And I suppose where I come at this from is, I presume that Variety must have some pretty strict rules given their own excellent editorial reputation. Yet the music industry sort of often feels the person who reps an artist might also have more fingers in the pie as well. So when you kind of think about that sort of pure editorial model of years gone by, is that just out of date now?Luke Girgis:Like I said, I'm very new to this industry. So I don't actually have much of a reference on what it was like back in the day. We have just come into it where we feel like there's a conflict. So we're managing Simone Giertz, and she's about to release a huge products line, product business. We take it to the editorial team. If it's something that they would write about, they write about it. If it's not, then we need to book a campaign. And so we book a campaign through the system like we would any other client. The record labels spend with us all the time to promote artists.Luke Girgis:So my brother has a record label. When he wants to run a campaign with us, he runs the campaign like everybody else. So that's the kind of way, I think people can overthink it. We just operate with our own stuff like we would anybody else. And we follow the editorial rules of whatever that publication is.Tim Burrowes:Understood. And where do you go from here? Is it more verticals within the wider entertainment vertical? Is it doing the same again in another country? What are you thinking about for the next stage of growth?Luke Girgis:The immediate next stage of growth is, if you go onto the Brag Media website, you'll see all the buckets in which we do work. And that is basically to fulfill our mission, to be ubiquitous with Australian culture. So what does that mean? That means where people are, if people go to events, we need to be doing events. So growing our events business is a big focus of ours. And it's something that we've had a lot of success with over the last year, growing our publishing business, continuing to grow the network. We now reach eight million Australians every month, which is 32% of the Australian population. How do we get to 50%?Luke Girgis:That is something that we're thinking about. We have a creative agency, we have a media agency where we help. When I say media agency, it's not to compete with the existing media agencies out there, but ... there's a lot of people that aren't Coca-Cola that need ... Like we are working with Send, for example, a grocery company, helping them. We help them with all their outdoor buying and all of that sort of stuff when they first launched, just because they're a startup and they needed another startup business to help them. And we had a lot of levers to pull. So we helped them there.Luke Girgis:And then we also are launching a consumer app to help people find gigs, go to gigs and make the live music industry a lot more prosperous coming out of COVID. So there's a lot of levers that we're pulling there, and that's our immediate growth. It's certainly not an international ambition yet.Tim Burrowes:And just touching on that sort of being of Australian culture, you were reported as one of the interested parties in Junkee, when that was for sale, when Ooh Media was selling that. Now, that went to the RACAT Group in the end. Did you come close to buying that, do you know?Luke Girgis:Yeah. Well look, depends on how you define close. We were one of the last couple, I think.Tim Burrowes:Yeah. I guess RACAT, in the end, it came out, they paid 2.5 million for it. I guess, was your bid anywhere near that?Luke Girgis:We had a seven figure bid, but I wouldn't say it was near that. But that's not to say it wasn't worth that. I think the Junkee brand's really good and we were really looking at it seriously, but there were a couple of things that prevented us from getting to that level, which I think it's worth that for sure. I think it's probably worth more than that, if I'm being honest. We didn't get up to that level because, as you saw, we announced two other acquisitions at the time. So there was an opportunity cost there and we thought we could get a faster growth out of the other two acquisitions than Junkee, and too, Junkee was sincerely very different to what we were currently doing.Luke Girgis:They do news. They do politics. We don't touch that. We touch, at the moment, we're all geared up for passion points, gaming, music, film. We're very deliberately not doing any hard news, any politics, any of that stuff. If we do touch it, it's because it intersects with an artist or a film star or whatever. So it was a huge deviation in our content focus. And we also had two other acquisitions that were distracting us at the time. So that explains, I think, why we didn't follow through there.Tim Burrowes:Well, Luke, best of luck with Variety, and thank you very much for your time.Luke Girgis:Thanks, Tim.Tim Burrowes:Today's podcast was produced with the support of Abe's Audio. More soon. Toodlepip.Speaker 4:Unmade.Speaker 5:Podcast edit by Abe's Audio.Audio production on Media Unmade was courtesy of Abe's Audio, the people to talk to about voiceovers and sound design for corporate videos, digital content, commercials and podcasts.Message us: letters@unmade.media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe
In the latest Socceroos Podcast - Aussies Abroad Edition, host Chris Curulli chats with Scottish-born Socceroo Martin Boyle. The episode covers how he is adjusting to life in Saudi Arabia, after previously only ever playing in Scotland, plus the interesting ways in which his experiences with the Socceroos helped it all come about in the first place. There's also a few funny stories from his time in camp and plenty of fan questions from social media answered along the way! Head to Soccceroos.com.au/podcasts to check out more episodes featuring the likes of Awer Mabil, Trent Sainsbury, Joel King and more.
This week we discuss Joel King's continued form, a record breaking Australian striker who hasn't featured in the Socceroos squad for a while and James and Lachlan reveal their proposed 25 man squads for the crucial World Cup Qualifiers later this month.
2022 got itself off to a flyer for Joel King, with a surprise Socceroos debut and transfer to Denmark arriving in a matter of weeks. On episode three of the Socceroos Podcast: Aussies Abroad Edition, host Chris Curulli catches up with the young fullback to see how life is treating him in Europe. The show also includes stories from King's time with the Olyroos at Tokyo 2020, the lessons learned rising through the ranks at Sydney FC and his first taste of the Socceroos setup this year. Listen now and be sure to check out our other episodes, including those featuring Awer Mabil & Trent Sainsbury!
Our sky-blue men showed incredible resilience to fight back not once, but twice this week to walk away with four points out of six. Great performances and very pleasing results put a smile on all three of our faces. We say so long, farewell and best wishes to Joel King with his move to Denmark, wax lyrical about Caceres and of course cover all the news, reviews and previews.
Our sky-blue men showed incredible resilience to fight back not once, but twice this week to walk away with four points out of six. Great performances and very pleasing results put a smile on all three of our faces. We say so long, farewell and best wishes to Joel King with his move to Denmark, wax lyrical about Caceres and of course cover all the news, reviews and previews.
Joel King Interview
Te gast zijn Joel King & Ricky Young van The Wild Feathers, een Amerikaanse band die alweer 11 jaar meedraait. Ze staan bekend om hun mix van Southern Rock, Americana, blues & folk muziek. The Wild Feathers brachten in 2013 hun debuutalbum uit en toerden twee jaar onafgebroken voordat het belandde op de eerste plaats van de Billboard Heatseekers Lijst. Al gauw volgden toers met Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson en Bob Seger. En onlangs kwam hun vierde studioalbum uit, Alvarado.
Simon and Brosquey are joined by the Sydney FC youngster ahead of the Grand Final against Melbourne City this weekend
Another big show with Simon and Brosquey giving their Loves and Loathes for the week before the A-League Semi-Final Review and Grand Final Preview (7:41) chats with Sydney FC defender Joel King (22:32) and Melbourne City Head Coach Patrick Kisnorbo (32:38), then they cover off the Euros with Mark Schwarzer (43:50) the Copa America (1:02:06) and Football in Asia with Paul Williams (1:06:00) before Greatest Games with Paul Wade reviewing the 1991 NSL Grand Final between Melbourne Croatia and South Melbourne (1:15:38)
Joining the show today with Matty: NRL Game Plan with Scott Sattler Victorian Racing Club Chairman Neil WilsonThursday's Top Tips with Chris Nelson Host of the Wandering Bear Sports Podcast Duncan ChubbSydney FC rising star Joel King Kookaburra's star Eddie Ockenden NRL Crystal Ball Round 8
Joel King from Sydney FC joined the show to preview their Sydney derby this weekend against the Western Sydney Wanderers.
Sydney FC player Joel King jumped on the line for this take on Sydney FC's season so far.
In this episode, you'll get to hear from Nashville-based Americana band, The Wild Feathers. Or a couple of its members at least. Sam Shansky caught up with Ricky Young and Joel King over Zoom to discuss The Wild Feathers new album, Medium Rarities, a really awesome collection of B-sides, covers, and other odds and ends that the guys worked up once the 2020 quarantine rendered touring a non-option. Which is to say, they had some time on their hands to something they'd never done before. I, for one, am thankful they did, because what they produced is some of their best work yet. Let's welcome to the show, The Wild Feathers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Join host Roger Fyfe as he talks to Kiama Anglican Church minister Aiden Sibrava and tech expert Joel King about mounting this year's Carols In Our Carpark and what it means after the year that has been. Fred Hollis is back with answers to the last Cryptic Kiama Clues and a brand new set of questions, so listen in to see if you know the answers. Music is by local musician George Royter with a track from his Christmas Cove album and Steve Inman and the Kiama Anglican Church Band. To share any news, tips or interview suggestions, or to answer the Cryptic Kiama Clues, email kcradiocontent@gmail.com
During his 10 years (and counting!) as a member of The Wild Feathers, Joel King and his bandmates have released four well-received studio albums and a live record, played hundreds upon hundreds of concerts all around the country and toured with legendary musicians like Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Bob Segar. Prior to his time with the accomplished Nashville-based Americana outfit, King — who plays bass and shares vocal duties in The Wild Feathers — was living in Oklahoma and working hard to make a living as the front man of a rock band called The Effects. A few days before The Wild Feathers released its latest album, Medium Rarities, on Nov. 20, King spoke to My First Band host Tyler Maas about the collection of B-sides, covers and unreleased material, as well as many of the standout moments from his decade in the band. Of course, the conversation eventually shifted to King's previous projects. Over the course of the hour-long discussion, he talked about making decent money and playing out often in high school bands like Rhythmic Overdose and The Denizens, touring avidly and even playing to American troops in the Middle East in The Effects, being courted by major labels after starting what would become The Wild Feathers, and what he hopes to do with the band once life returns to some semblance of normalcy. My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering and Lakefront Brewery. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever else you get podcasts. You can also listen to rebroadcasts of previous My First Band episodes on WMSE every Wednesday from noon to 12:30 p.m. CST. Music used in this episode comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers") and The Wild Feathers (cover of "Blue" by The Jayhawks).
bassist for The Wild Feathers discusses new record
bassist for The Wild Feathers discusses new record
bassist for The Wild Feathers discusses new record
Episode 20!! We hear from Tesni Evans and Amanda Sobhy who both came through tight matches in round 2 and prepare for the 1/4 finals tomorrow.. Or today depending when your listening.. Or yesterday for that matter..... We review round 2 and look ahead to some tasshhhhhtey 1/4 finals including a repeat f the 2019 world open final Tarek Momen and Paul Coll, Camile Serme v Joel King, Sobhy v tayeb, Evans v Perry, actucally well stop there as al matches promise to be amazing high qualiteh squehsh. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Joining me on this episode is a Mr. Joey King US Army Ranger Veteran and moderator/member to Veteran Groups such as Veterans of Peace, American Legion, AMVETS, Moutain Ranger Association and US Army Ranger Association. Here to share his thoughts on a sense of connection he and others have found in participating in digital communities and reviving a sort of "tribe" like environment. The noticed benefits of finding your "niche group" and a few stories to share as well. We also touch briefly on a book called Tribe by Sebastian Junger others may find useful. Mr. Joel King notes it took him nearly 20 years to find a similar sense of belonging and connection as he had in the military and with the advantages of social media that has become easier and more viable to accomplish even in this time of remaining socially distant. #DismountPodcast #MilitaryVet #Military #PodcastersOfInstagram #PodcastLife #PodcastShow #repost #podcastmovement #podcaster #VeteranPodcast #VeteranMediaBiz #VetLife #Military
In this episode, podcast host Justin Osborn, ALC, speaks with Joel King, ALC, National Marketing Consultant with JP King Auction company. Joel is an RLI instructor for their Recreational Land Real Estate LANDU course. In this episode, he shares his insights on trends in the recreational land market as well as tips for conducting recreational land transactions.
Annie and Ando chat with children's entertainer Joel King about how the party business is operating in the grips of a pandemic. Remember you can listen to Annie and Ando... LEARN MORE The post Joel King Interview appeared first on Annie and Ando.
Ashlea Broomfield interviews Joel King about adolescent self-harm. What’s the best way to manage this common problem?
Everyone needs a Joel King in their life. So today we're celebrating him! Kindly forgive the audio, we're in the garden studio today (AKA, the backyard).Embrace the compliments, even though it makes you uncomfortable.. We love you Joel!
WWT is participating in the Cisco DevNet Create conference on April 24 – 25. DevNet Create focuses on enabling developers, infrastructure and DevOps engineers to write software which integrates with the application programming interfaces (APIs) of Cisco products. WWT’s Joel King is presenting at DevNet Create, and in this episode Joel discusses the importance of the Application Security initiative in Cloud Managed Networks. In addition, Joel discusses how this process will evolve as networking moves from running on physical hardware to a Software Defined Networking (SDN) future. WWT at DevNet Create 2019
Young prospects Joel King and Cameron Devlin have earned call ups to the senior ranks of defending Hyundai A-League Premiers Sydney FC. The Young Socceroos duo have signed contracts to join up with Steve Corica's first team squad for the 2018/19 season, while three other academy starlets have been handed Hyundai A-League scholarships. Perth Glory has won the race to sign Chris Ikonomidis, with the winger becoming the fourth Caltex Socceroo to join the club in the Hyundai A-League off-season. The 23-year-old joins defenders Matthew Spiranovic, Ivan Franjic and Jason Davidson as Caltex Socceroos to have joined the Tony Popovic revolution in the west. Melbourne City have moved to replace the recently departed Dean Bouzanis with fringe Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Birighitti. The 27-year-old has signed a three-year deal, returning to Australia after two years abroad.
The new F5 Super-NetOps Training program is a training and enablement program that helps organizations train engineers and architects to move their networking experience to a programmable infrastructure model. WWT experts Mark Wall and Joel King discuss the key elements of the F5 Super-NetOps Training program, how it helps organizations meet the challenge of the skill set gap in this space and what differentiates the F5 Super-NetOps Training programs from other such training programs.