Justgiving page for redundant Team Rock staff makes over 3 times it's £20,000 target
After music publisher Team Rock abruptly went into liquidation this week, a JustGiving page set up to help staff has made nearly £70,000 in a matter of days having set an initial target of £20,000..
Team Rock staff were made redundant with immediate effect
The closure followed the failure of funding intended to pave the way for expansion fell through, leaving dozens staff members redundant six days before Christmas with no pay.
A total of 73 staff members across the music publication’s Glasgow and London offices were made redundant with immediate effect on Monday after the publisher unexpectedly announced that it was going into liquidation.
The collapse came when Team Rock, which owned titles including Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Prog as well as its own radio station, was finalising its third round of funding intended to facilitate greater scale of the business when the new investor walked away at the last minute.
Brian Baglow, executive producer at Team Rock and director of the Scottish Games Network, said: “I think everybody is still trying to process it because we’re still very much in shock.
“The magazine teams in London were on deadline and there were magazines ready to be published which would be revenue coming in. Nobody was prepared for this, absolutely nobody we didn’t have any prior warning.”
Baglow started Team Rock’s games division which, amongst other things, was looking to generate new revenue streams for the publisher by making its platforms more interactive and engaging.
However administrators were called in when, according to joint administrator Tom MacLennan, the firm was trading at a loss “for a significant period of time”.
The music community has rallied together thanks to a JustGiving campaign set up for the redundant staff by Ben Ward, the frontman of heavy-metal band Orange Goblin. The campaign received overwhelming support, generating more than three times its target.
The page said: “These are good, hard-working, committed people that through Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Prog, TeamRock Radio and more, have supported the rock and heavy-metal scene in this country for decades and now we, the rock community, need to pull together to help give something back.”
Team Rock was formed in 2012 and received funding from Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Co-Investment Bank.