Pedestrian, formerly PEDESTRIAN.TV, is a youth digital news and

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...

website based in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia, founded in 2005. It is a subsidiary of

Nine Entertainment Nine Entertainment Co. Holdings Limited is an Australian publicly listed company with holdings in mass media radio and television broadcasting, publishing and digital media. It uses Nine as its corporate branding. The entity is largely a succ ...

Pedestrian Group owns Pedestrian (the website) as well the Australian brands Pedestrian JOBS and Openair Cinemas.

History

Launched in 2005 by co-founders Chris Wirasinha and Oscar Martin, Pedestrian.TV was initially distributed as a

DVD magazine A DVD magazine is a magazine that collects most of its content on DVD, or is issued in a DVD-only format. It was invented by Isak Bini who published the first DVD magazine: City and You DVD magazine. It will play on a regular DVD player. The co ...

, stylised as a "Plastizine", with the

advertorial An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term "advertorial" is a blend word, blend (see portmanteau) of the words "advertisement" and "editorial". Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946. In printed pub ...

backing of BMW Mini. In 2007, the company shifted online, launching the Pedestrian.TV site. In 2010, the company launched sub-site Pedestrian JOBS; a creative industries-focused employment classifieds board.

subsequently acquired a 60% stake in Pedestrian.TV in 2015 for a reported $10 million. Nine bought out Wirasinha and Martin's remaining 40% ownership share in 2018 for an additional $39 million, putting the company's total valuation just shy of $100 million. In 2017 Pedestrian.TV broke the story of youth government broadcaster

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

's initial internal discussions regarding moving the

Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music poll presented by the publicly-funded Australian youth radio station Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Music of Australia, Australian and alternative music of th ...

away from the controversial 26th January

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Flag of Great Britain, Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove, a ...

public holiday. Triple J ultimately shifted the Hottest 100 date to the fourth weekend in January, citing a desire to remain "an event that ''everyone'' can enjoy together." Following the merger of Nine and

Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media (communication), media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The ...

in 2018, the business behind Pedestrian.TV was merged with that of

Allure Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald ...

, forming the larger Pedestrian Group, with the website changing its name to Pedestrian, and also incorporating the brands ''Business Insider Australia'', ''Gizmodo'', Kotaku and POPSUGAR Australia. It was announced that it would continue to be run by its founders. With Wirasinha and Martin shifting to advisory roles following the sale, Nine appointed Matt Rowley as the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Pedestrian Group in early 2019. Also in 2019, Pedestrian acquired Openair Cinemas (formerly

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

Openair Cinemas, which arranged outdoor showings of films in open spaces across Australia and New Zealand). According to audience data in September 2019, the website reached over one million

unique user A unique user is a term in web analytics that refers to data of a Pageview of a unique IP, whose presence is only counted once, regardless of the number of pages they visit. This definition does not count repeat or returning users for a standard pe ...

s per month, and attracted in excess of two million monthly page views. PopSugar was still part of the group in September 2019, but appears to have been dropped by March 2022. In March 2021, Pedestrian Group announced a multi-year deal with

Vice Media Vice Media Group LLC is a Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company. Vice Media encompasses four main business areas: Vice Studios Group (film and TV production); Vice TV (a joint venture with A&E Networks, also known as Vicelan ...

and

Refinery29 Refinery29 (R29) is an American multinational digital media and entertainment website focused on young women. It is owned by Sundial Media Group. History Justin Stefano, Philippe von Borries, Piera Gelardi, and Christene Barberich co-founded Ref ...

to become the Australian digital publishing home of both brands. A new team was announced for Refinery29 later that year, and in January 2022 a new team of five, headed by Brad Esposito, was announced to head up Vice Australia and New Zealand. In July 2024, it was reported that Pedestrian would undergo restructuring as part of a cost-cutting effort. Chief executive Matt Rowley announced his departure from the company and up to 40 positions will be eliminated. Pedestrian will also end its licensing deals with Vice, Refinery29,

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' () is a design, technology, science, and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the sub-blogs ''io9'' and ''Earther'', which focus on pop ...

Lifehacker ''Lifehacker'' is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on 31 January 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is owned by Ziff Davis. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including Microsoft Windows, M ...

, and

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

Description

Pedestrian is based in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. the Pedestrian Group owns Pedestrian and the Australian brands Vice Media (Australia), ''

Business Insider Australia ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider ...

'', '' Gizmodo AU'',

, '' Lifehacker Australia'',

, Pedestrian JOBS, and Openair Cinemas.

Awards

Pedestrian.TV was awarded Brand of the Year by

Mumbrella ''Mumbrella'' is an Australian marketing and media industry news website. It was started in December 2008 by Tim Burrowes, and has since gone on to become a popular source for news, analysis and commentary on the advertising, PR, and media ind ...

in 2015, 2016, and also 2020, with Pedestrian Group winning three other Mumbrella awards, for Best Publisher-Led Advertising Campaign, Event of the Year, and Branded Content Studio of the Year in the same year.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Australian companies established in 2005 Internet properties established in 2005 Australian news websites Australian entertainment websites Nine Entertainment