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February 7, 2002updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Magazine for self-employed closes after only nine issues

By Press Gazette

Alodis: revenue problems

Alodis, the magazine for the self-employed, has closed and is in the process of being sold to Tom Rubython’s company, European Press Limited (EPL).

Alodis was previously owned by Mongrel Worlds and produced by staff at John Brown Publishing. Mongrel Worlds was placed in administration by the High Court on 11 September. The company continued to trade after that date and issues seven, eight and nine were sent to subscribers.

No new issues of Alodis will be produced by EPL.

Around 50 staff at Mongrel Worlds have been made redundant, including 25 on Alodis. Journalists at John Brown are believed to have been offered alternative jobs. Alodis editor Chris Dunkerley is now launch editor of the new WHSmith-branded men’s title, Payday.

The move has angered subscribers, however, who claim they were kept in the dark over the exact state of the magazine’s health.

Robert Minton-Taylor, a subscriber, freelance journalist and president of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, said he was called a few weeks ago by Alodis and asked if he would be interested in renewing his subscription.

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"I find it surprising that four months after the publication went into administration there was no indication whatsoever that the publication was anything other than in a healthy financial state," he told Press Gazette. "Especially given that, in the October issue, there was an article on how to cope with failure.

"It was an exceptionally good publication, well produced and with good articles, but I feel somewhat misled in believing that everything was hunky-dory," he added.

Malcolm Cohen, administrator and partner at BDO Stoy Hayward, said revenues were not coming in quickly enough and Alodis’s publishers had decided "enough was enough".

Cohen said subscribers were not informed of the closure earlier because its owners had hoped it would be a "seamless transition" and subscribers would be offered the chance to sign up to a new publication at EPL.

A spokeswoman for Alodis said the magazine’s brand would continue and EPL was planning to launch a yearbook for the self-employed. She said this was a "massive market" with 1.7 million self-employed professionals, 6 per cent cent of the UK workforce.

Alodis, distributed via controlled circulation, had an ABC figure of 80,000.

 

By Ruth Addicott

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