Owners of youth website Junkee settle financial dispute

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Colourful publishing entrepreneur Piers Grove has agreed to sell his stake in youth website Junkee to former Nine chairman David Haslingden in an attempt to dampen speculation about the outlet’s future.

Grove, a former investor in satirical news outlet The Betoota Advocate and Instagram focused outfit The Daily Aus, will step down from his position as managing director of Junkee and hand over his equity to business partner Haslingden, who he had threatened with legal action over the repayment of a $1.2 million loan.

Former Nine chairman David Haslingden has come to a financial agreement with Junkee Media’s managing director, Piers Grove.Credit:Michael Koziol

In a joint statement on Thursday, RACAT Group (Haslingden’s business) and Grove said they had reached a financial settlement. Grove, who had a stroke in May, had not been seen in the office for months, raising concerns about who was in charge of the website. Junkee will be led by a newly appointed editor-in-chief, Alice Griffin, and head of operations and sales, Niki Jones.

The settlement comes days after an investigation by independent news outlet Crikey revealed that attempts by Grove and Haslingden to reshape Junkee had led to mounting losses and a mass exodus of staff. The article said staff were concerned about the company’s financial stability and future and said Grove was threatening to sue Haslingden, the former chairman of Nine (the owner of this masthead) and an ex News Corp executive, over an unpaid loan.

“Junkee was purchased by Scout Publishing, a joint venture between Piers Grove and RACAT Group. Both Mr Grove and RACAT financed the purchase and operations, in the form of loans convertible into equity,” the statement said. “The $1.2m was paid by Mr Grove as a convertible loan. Mr Grove has now offered to sell his interests in Scout to RACAT. The outcome has been mutually agreed by both parties who are confident of completing this in the next month.”

RACAT Group is a publishing, production and digital company that runs Australian Geographic, game developer and publisher Runaway Play and Northern Pictures, the production company behind TV shows such as Love on the Spectrum, Hardball and Lukewarm Sex. Its board members include former Telstra executive Joe Pollard and Sharon Tal Yguado, the former head of original series and head of genre series at Amazon Studios.

Grove: Onto new projects

Grove: Onto new projectsCredit:Scout Publishing

In December last year, RACAT Group and Grove bought Junkee and its sister titles AWOL and Punkee from ASX-listed media company oOh! Media for an undisclosed sum. Junkee was not profitable, but deals with Google and Meta which occurred because of media bargaining laws helped provide certainty of income.

RACAT Group combined Junkee Media with its other publication Australian Geographic under a single entity called Scout Publishing in April and Grove was announced as managing director of both titles. However, he suffered a stroke in May and was on leave for months. In October, staff were told Grove was not returning to the company. He plans to focus on other projects.



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