After nearly two decades building Pinstripe Media into a home for small business content, David Koch has stepped back, handing the reins to Private Media in a deal that brings titles like Startup Daily, Flying Solo, Your Money & Your Life and Kochie’s Business Builders into a broader national publishing network.
In a new episode of Mediaweek’s Newsmakers podcast, Kochie reflects on the deal, the handover to his children, and why Private Media, publisher of Crikey, The Mandarin, and SmartCompany, was the right fit.
A quiet transition with deep roots
“I’m sort of late sixties,” Koch says. “It’s time for Lib and I to get a bit more flexibility in our life.”
It’s not a sudden exit, but part of a long-considered evolution. Koch has known Private Media chair Eric Beecher for years, regularly catching up to talk about the joys and headaches of independent publishing.
“We’d talk about what it was like to own your own niche media business,” Koch says. “The fact that you were the bank for the business… the ups and downs of cash flow, flaming agencies not paying on time.”
Next-gen media leaders call the shots
While the two patriarchs kept the conversations going, it was the younger generation who made the deal happen.
“The next generation of executives in both companies had a similar admiration for each other,” he explains. “AJ [Koch] and Will Hayward basically drove the acquisition.”
The two businesses had been competing for attention in the small business space, but with complementary strengths. “Pinstripe had its own content marketing agency, strong in video, weak in subscriptions,” Koch says. “Private Media didn’t have video facilities, but they were very strong in subscriptions and database management.”
The merger made practical sense, but it also worked on a cultural level. “Both [companies shared] similar ideals in terms of professionalism of the journalism, and looking after the reader or the viewer. It just ended up being a great fit.”
Kochie and the family gathered on the Sunrise set for his farewell
A family business at its core
Pinstripe Media was never just Kochie’s gig, it was a family operation, built alongside his wife Libby and, in later years, their children AJ and Samantha.
“My daughter Samantha, who’s the COO, is very process and financial-driven – all the nuts-and-bolts – she’s good with details and that’s something AJ and I don’t have,” Koch says.
“In Private Media, it’s very similar with Will Hayward and their COO, who is like their Sam. It just shows you the different elements you need.”
Reflecting on his time in the business, Koch adds, “It was one of the great privileges of my life to be able to work alongside two of your kids for many years.”
And in true Kochie fashion, he adds with a laugh: “They’ve always referred, probably a bit unkindly, but with some truth, to me as the chief bullsh****er while they do all the work.”
What comes next
Koch will stay involved in an advisory role and will continue to lead his financial media business, Ausbiz, which sits outside the deal.
But the day-to-day running of Pinstripe is now squarely in the hands of the next generation, and the Private Media team.
To hear more from Kochie on the making of the deal, fatherhood, the state of Australian business journalism, and what he’s planning next, listen to the full interview on the latest episode of Mediaweek’s Newsmakers podcast.