About B&T

B&T

Overview

B&T is an Australian trade publication for the advertising, marketing, media and public relations industries, published from Surry Hills in Sydney by The Misfits Media Company. It combines a daily news website and daily email newsletter at bandt.com.au with a bi-monthly print magazine and a large calendar of industry awards and events, including the B&T Awards, the 30 Under 30 Awards and the Women in Media Awards. B&T is known across the Australian industry for a comparatively irreverent editorial voice — its own media kit notes that its "distinctive voice and sense of humour make our content stand out" — alongside conventional trade reporting on agency appointments, account wins, campaigns, ratings and media business news.

History

B&T began in 1950 as a magazine serving the broadcasting industry; its title derives from the Broadcasting and Television Journal, the name under which it covered the birth of Australian television. The National Film and Sound Archive holds the journal's 21 September 1956 edition, which carried a special devoted to the launch of Sydney station TCN9, Australia's first television service, days earlier. B&T's own 2026 media kit confirms the brand was "founded in 1950 as a magazine" and has evolved through successive eras of the media industry it covers.

For many years before its current ownership, B&T was published by Cirrus Media from Chatswood in Sydney. In June 2014 the title relaunched with a new website and magazine format, with publisher David Hovenden introducing "the new B&T" to readers. Months later, in a management buyout reported by Mumbrella in September 2014 and completed on 1 October 2014, Hovenden and Dan Uglow bought B&T and its sister title Travel Weekly from Cirrus Media for an undisclosed sum, establishing The Misfits Media Company and relocating the business to Surry Hills. The deal included associated assets such as the B&T Awards, and around 20 staff across the two titles transferred to the new company.

Under the Misfits, B&T expanded well beyond publishing. In 2018 the company launched itself as a full-service creative and events agency alongside its magazines, reporting that in 2017 it had hosted more than 30 bespoke events for tens of thousands of attendees across the media, travel, sports and hospitality industries, had worked with clients including Seven West Media, Adobe and News Corp, and had grown more than 150 per cent since its inception in 2014 — figures the company published about itself at the time. The publishing program continued in parallel, with B&T progressively emphasising daily digital news, its newsletter and its awards calendar. In its current media kit the brand positions itself as an advocate for the industry it covers, saying it "focuses on positivity – driving change through diversity and equality", a stance reflected in long-running editorial franchises built around recognising women, young talent and technology leaders in the sector.

Content and Coverage

B&T's website publishes daily news and analysis across advertising, marketing, media, technology and agency life: its site organises coverage under sections including Advertising, Marketing, Media, Agencies, Technology, Brands and Campaigns, spanning creative account moves, media buying and ratings stories, campaign launches, executive appointments, industry research and commentary. Recurring editorial franchises listed in its media kit include Campaign of the Month, New Business Winners and Best of the Best, and its reporting ranges from breaking news briefs to longer features and opinion. The print magazine has periodically handed its pages to guest editors drawn from the industry it covers: in June 2014, for example, B&T reported that KIIS 106.5 breakfast hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O had guest-edited the latest issue. News is distributed through a daily newsletter; archived editions on the site run daily through September 2026, typically carrying around two dozen stories each, and the site itself was publishing multiple new stories a day in mid-September 2026. The print magazine continues on a bi-monthly schedule, according to the company's LinkedIn profile.

Events are a central part of the brand. The B&T Awards are the flagship: the 2018 edition drew more than 800 people to Sydney Town Hall and presented 36 trophies from 369 entries, as reported in B&T's own coverage at the time — a year in which several holding groups were boycotting industry awards, yet B&T reported no drop in entries. The wider calendar includes the 30 Under 30 Awards, the Women in Media Awards, the Women Leading Tech Awards and the Cairns Crocodiles advertising festival in Far North Queensland, which the media kit describes as part of a program reaching more than 8,000 senior marketers. The media kit lists distribution across all Australian states for the print magazine.

Audience and Reach

B&T's audience is the Australian advertising, marketing, media and PR workforce, from agency and media-owner staff to brand marketers and senior executives. Figures published in the brand's January 2026 media kit put the magazine's circulation at 5,000 and its readership at 20,000; these are the publisher's own media-kit figures rather than an independent audit. The company has previously promoted a newsletter audience of more than 30,000 advertising industry subscribers, in its own 2018 material, and its LinkedIn company page recorded more than 41,000 followers in 2026. In January 2016, trade press reported that B&T had begun publishing audited online audience numbers through the Australian Media Alliance audit, at a time when its average daily unique browsers were reported at 2,644 — a dated figure, but indicative of the title's established position in a small, competitive trade-media market.

Digital Presence

B&T's digital operation centres on bandt.com.au, which carries its daily news, features, award and event information and a date-organised archive of its daily newsletter editions going back years; the domain's WHOIS record was updated in January 2026 and the site was publishing daily news in September 2026. The brand also maintains a substantial social presence, anchored by its LinkedIn page. Its parent company operates a separate agency site at themisfits.media showcasing its creative, content, social and event-production services.

Ownership and Organisation

B&T is owned and published by The Misfits Media Company, the independent Sydney company formed by David Hovenden and Dan Uglow for the 2014 management buyout from Cirrus Media. The business is based in Surry Hills, New South Wales. According to the brand's 2026 media kit, its leadership includes Rosie Oakshott as Managing Director of B&T, with David Hovenden remaining Editor-in-Chief, Tom Fogden as Editor and Arvind Hickman as Features and Analysis Editor, supported by journalists and partnerships staff; the same kit names Erin Green as general manager of the Cairns Crocodiles event. LinkedIn lists the company in the 11–50 employee range. Alongside B&T, the Misfits publishes Travel Weekly and operates an integrated agency and events business.

Contact and Availability

B&T is published from Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, and is available nationally online at bandt.com.au, where readers can sign up for the daily newsletter, and in print through its bi-monthly magazine. Its 2026 media kit lists editorial contacts including the Editor-in-Chief at david@bandt.com.au and the Editor at tom@bandt.com.au, with advertising and partnerships enquiries directed to the B&T sales team listed in the same kit. Event entries, tickets and schedules for the B&T Awards, 30 Under 30, Women in Media and Cairns Crocodiles are handled through the B&T website.