Media monitoring veteran John Croll brings Truescope to Oz

A fourth major player has entered Australia’s competitive media monitoring industry with today’s arrival of John Croll’s Truescope.

Croll previously led the ASX giant Isentia, taking it through a 2010 sale to Quadrant Private Equity and 2014 ASX float.

Isentia – which rebranded from Media Monitors in in 2012 – peaked with a near-$1bn market capitalisation before the misfiring acquisition of King Content in 2015 saw investment sentiment turn against the company, which was then acquired by Access Intelligence in 2021.

Croll left Isentia in 2018. After a year off, he founded Truescope seven years ago, alongside former colleague Michael Bade. Truescope launched in Singapore, NZ and the US, and already has revenues of $15m. But it did not initially target Australia because of the relatively high cost of accessing copyrighted content.

In this podcast, Croll said that client demand had let to the choice to open the doors in Australia today. He said: “I love this industry. I’ve been in it all my life.”

Whereas Isentia had 1,200 staff, Croll said that advances in AI has allowed him to build similar capabilities with just 65 people. Truescope covers broadcast, print, digital and social media.

Croll said: “We’re swimming in our own lane. We’re back. We know the industry very well. We know how to build fantastic media intelligence platforms.”

Along with Isentia, the other key local media monitoring competitors are the locally founded Streem, which was sold to Cision in 2022 and Meltwater which is owned by private equity.