Hello again.

This is my first post for Mumbrella in a little over three years, and I return with a piece of exciting news. As of next week, Mumbrella will have a new owner.

Back at the end of last year, Diversified Communications, owner of Mumbrella since the end of 2017, agreed to sell. The next owner will be a new company called Mumbrella Media. The deal completes next Tuesday January 28.

The owners of Mumbrella Media are B2B publishing house The Intermedia Group, and myself. I’ll be publisher, and we will work from Intermedia’s offices in Glebe.

There will initially be two mastheads in the Mumbrella Media stable – alongside Mumbrella, Unmade. The two are of different vintages. I published Mumbrella’s first post on WordPress on December 9, 2008. Unmade’s first post, on Substack, followed nearly 13 years later on August 23, 2021.

We sold Mumbrella at the end of 2017 and Diversified took management control at the beginning of 2020.

Some of the greatest cognitive dissonance I’ve experienced since leaving was attending a couple of editions of Mumbrella’s Publish Awards as a paying customer, where Unmade was a finalist. There’s a lot less stress in being a guest at an awards event than there is being on duty, but it’s still strange being in the room. Particularly with MC Merrick Watts making my presence his running gag of the night. I was happy to see how well run the event was. The Mumbrella events team still operate a critical path document like Mark Knopfler plays a Fender Stratocaster.

I’m lucky enough to inherit the Mumbrella hot seat at a time when it is already on an upwards trajectory. Outgoing publisher Adam Lang has been a positive force who stabilised the title when he joined just over a year ago. That was despite only having half his time available to work on Mumbrella, with the excellent Fear & Greed podcast as his main gig.

And I’ll miss listening to Adam on the Mumbrellacast. I hope he’ll do me the honour of a handover episode or two.

On the detail of how the deal came about, David Longman, CEO of Diversified Communications Australia adds: “The Intermedia Group approached Diversified with a vision for Mumbrella’s future, and after thoughtful consideration, Diversified recognized this as the ideal time to transition ownership. This move ensures Mumbrella will continue to thrive and grow under new leadership, further cementing its place as a cornerstone of Australia’s marketing and media landscape.

“The Intermedia Group’s proven track record in publishing and events makes them the perfect custodian for the Mumbrella brand. We are confident that this transition will bring exciting opportunities for Mumbrella’s community, clients and staff, ensuring the brand continues to innovate and grow.”

One of the challenges of returning to Mumbrella is the changed landscape. In its first decade, Mumbrella was the exciting new thing. B&T and AdNews were fading weekly print titles that had back then come only recently and reluctantly to the web.........

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