Factory Media liquidated

Factory Media has appointed an administrator who has informed creditors that the company has been put into voluntary liquidation. The London-based publisher has six cycle websites as well as a further ten outdoor and lifestyle titles.

Factory Media – which published Dirt, RideUK, BikeMagic, Road Cycling UK and the outdoor website Mpora – has appointed accountants Chamberlain & Co to act as the insolvency practitioner in the winding-up process. A number of the websites were originally print magazines.

The company was acquired in January 2017 by Square Up Media from Forward Internet Holdings, owner since 2012. The action-sports titles were brought together by the Foresight group in 2006.

Factory Media’s latest filed accounts (already more than a year old) show that the company has been struggling for some time, and the recent introduction of GDPR privacy regulations may have further impacted the firm’s revenues, which are all based on online advertisements and sponsorship.

Some of the titles – such as Dirt – are still posting social media updates. It’s likely that the websites will be sold individually or as a group, but probable that creditors will see little of the monies owed.