Last December Team Rock Ltd. went into administration, laying off nearly all of their staff and that of the publications they owned (‘Metal Hammer‘, ‘Classic Rock‘ & ‘Prog‘) just before the holidays. The staff made redundant were let go without their December wages or any redundancy/severance pay.
It was a shock to almost all involved as no warning signs had been given prior to the announcement. A Justgiving campaign launched by Orange Goblin‘s Ben Ward in the days that followed for the newly unemployed staff raised £88,760 ($108,588 USD) to help them get back on their feet.
Eventually the properties were reacquired by their former owner, Future Publishing, for £800,000. That same company had originally sold the assets to Team Rock Ltd. for £10.2 million back in 2013. While things are now relatively back to normal: the magazines are back in print and putting out new monthly issues; There’s still a story to be told regarding how it all collapsed. A new piece over at Independent has word from ‘Metal Hammer‘ Editor Merlin Alderslade, Features Editor Eleanor Goodman and Online Editor Luke Morton on the rise, fall and return of their magazine.
See below for a passage on how they initially found out about the company going under:
“Just before 5 o’clock, a man and a woman walked into the office, neither of whom the staff recognised, and called everybody into the middle of the room. They were wearing suits, and as such, immediately stood out in an environment where standard uniform is ripped jeans and Megadeth T-Shirts. The two interlopers had with them a thick stack of envelopes; they were letters explaining that TeamRock had gone into administration and that 73 jobs were to be terminated, effective immediately. There was no money available for redundancy pay-outs and to add insult to injury, the staff would not be paid their December wage. ‘As soon as we got called into the middle of the room,’ recalls Alderslade ‘I thought ‘we’re fucked!'”
Read on at Independent.
