Pacific Star buys Surfing Life (and Morrison Media)

Morrison Media, which shades titles like Surfing Life and White Horses beneath its umbrella, was sold last night to Pacific Star Network. It’s reported that PSN dropped $10.8 mill on the deal, which aside from the two surf publications, also banks them titles like frankie, Smith Journal and more. The deal’s yet to be finalised, but a sale agreement has been signed and shareholder approval is the final piece of the puzzle. According to an ASX release, PSN’s acquisition of the publishing haus is part of a strategy to expand and diversify their portfolio from primarily radio broadcasting and sport to include bona fide print matter. frankie is the real cherry here, singled out by network chairman Andrew Moffatt for content that “speaks to a highly engaged audience,” (aka; a circulation of 60k). Surfing Life is a sweet sprinkling though, bringing 28 years’ experience in the surf media game. This changing of ownership will mean little for all publications involved – no jobs are being torched and office space will keep on keeping on. So, yep. Just thought you might like to know.