'Media is different' - Will Hayward on why he believes Private Media's Pinstripe purchase will work out

Unmade: media and marketing analysis

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'Media is different' - Will Hayward on why he believes Private Media's Pinstripe purchase will work out

Jul 22, 2025

Transcript

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.

We’re a day earlier than usual in our weekly podcast cycle, after last night’s announcement that Eric Beecher’s Private Media has bought the David Koch-founded Pinstripe Media. Today’s interview features Private Media CEO Will Hayward and Pinstripe’s MD AJ Koch.

And further down, there were big swings in both directions on the Unmade Index.

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‘We’re trying to build a mass product’

Rivals turned colleagues Koch, left, and Hayward

This week saw a major consolidation in the publishing sector serving small businesses, with Private Media, owner of Smart Company, buying its biggest rival Pinstripe Media. Pinstripe, founded by former Sunrise presenter David Koch, publishes Startup Daily, Flying Solo and Business Builders.

Private Media has been examining its options to grow through acquisition for some time. In conversation with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, Will Hayward explains why, of 30 potential acquisitions, Pinstripe was the deal to do. And AJ Koch explains why now was the time to sell the family firm.

David Koch will continue to front Business Builders for now, but will not be coming across as a member of staff.

In the conversation Hayward acknowledges the view of investor Warren Buffett that acquirers are usually on the wrong end of any acquisition. He argues: “We think media is different, and I would argue that the trend in media has been positive.”

On the exit of his father from managing Pinstripe, AJ Koch says: “He's not a spring chicken anymore and we know he needs to retire at some point. We'd always talked about being open to an exit at some point. But we weren't actively looking.”

Hayward says that the logic of the deal is centred on the close competition between the two organisations in targeting an audience of small and medium sized businesses. But he claims this new found pricing power will not be used to put up prices for advertisers and sponsors, but to make it easier to advertise in the sector.

He says: "The first step to building a really sustainable business in which the majority of revenue comes from advertising is to make sure that you're making it really easy for your advertisers to grow their spend year on year. If I was a CEO of a publicly listed business where I was incentivized on the next 12 months of revenue, absolutely pricing power matters a great deal. I'm not.

“We're not too focused on the next year. We're focused more on the next three to five years. And the first step on that journey will be making it as easy as possible for the marketing team at Big Tech Inc to say ‘That's a great buy. Let's just keep doing that buy'.”

Private Media's Will Hayward on the chase for growth, information niches and the mental health cost of fighting Lachlan Murdoch

Tim Burrowes

July 26, 2023

Private Media's Will Hayward on the chase for growth, information niches and the mental health cost of fighting Lachlan Murdoch

In today’s podcast conversation with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, Will Hayward, CEO of Private Media, discusses innovating within the confines of a challenging media landscape; where the company plans to take Private Media’s business model; the economics of publishing; and the personal toll of the company’s defamation battle with Lachlan Murdoch.

Read full story