March 15, 2021 12:05
Less than a year after Vice shrunk its local operations almost to the point of non-existence, Pedestrian has announced it will revive the media brand and launch women’s media site Refinery29 in the local market.
Despite Vice’s previous difficulties locally, and the shuttering of other digital newsrooms including Buzzfeed, 10 Daily, and whimn.com.au, Pedestrian’s CEO Matt Rowley is confident both Vice and Refinery29 will be set up for success.
“In the Pedestrian Group, we’ve actually seen growth year-on-year,” Rowley told reporters, addressing the local media landscape’s condensing.
“Part of what’s behind that is the scale that we’ve got in market. If you think about Pedestrian, it’s always been a self-sustaining business model. It’s needed to be profitable to reinvest in the business and build. It’s never been a venture capital-backed business model.