Two of the senior citizens of Australia’s media industry – David Koch (69) and Eric Beecher, who Wikipedia puts at “about 74” – are getting together, the former buying the latter’s broadcast and digital media business.

‘Kochie’ will however, be staying on, continuing and to present his Business Builders TV show, which is contracted to the Seven Network.

Beecher’s Private Media is acquiring Koch’s Pinstripe Media for an undisclosed price. Created by Koch and wife Libby in 2007 as a production company to produce the first season of Business Builders, it has morphed into content marketing, digital publishing and social media, producing finance content and videos for News Corp. By 2017 it was producing more TV content – Dream Academy on Seven, and Airport Economist on Sky Business and Qantas inflight, moving to the dizzy heights of Barangaroo where it now has studios.

The business – which boasts a basketful of big name clients including Google and Atlassian, Qantas and Officeworks – is now managed by the Kochs’ children, Alexander ‘AJ’ Koch and Samantha Brown, while Beecher, now chairman of Private Media, has Will Hayward as chief executive, and it’s Hayward who says the acquisition is “part of the company’s strategy to ensure the sustainability of its journalism”.

AJ Koch says they had not been “actively looking to sell” at this point, although they had spoken about it as a family, “looking for an exit”.

Koch will become a strategic adviser to the business, continuing to act as presenter and commentator. Private Media is publisher of Crikey, The Mandarin and SmartCompany.

Pictured: David Koch with wife Libby (photo Pinstripe Media)