Channel 4 has taken a minority stake in London-based news agency Barcroft Media.
Barcroft has a focus on bizarre human interest, and natural world, stories and employs around 50-staff. It sells photos and videos to a wide variety of news organisations around the UK, produces its own TV documentaries and claims over 2m subscribers to its Youtube channels.
Barcroft also provides content for brands to use for commercial purposes.
Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham said: “As Channel 4’s growth in online and commercial innovation continues apace, it’s an exciting time for our Indie Growth Fund to make its first investment in a future-facing business with both content creation and multi-platform distribution capabilities.
“Barcroft’s ability to connect with younger audiences globally, and their work with different formats, platforms and brands, aligns with our own commercial growth and we look forward to sharing our expertise to help Barcroft grow and to develop 4’s wider digital strategy.”
Barcroft Media was founded by Sam Barcroft in 2003.
He told Press Gazette: “The time was right for us to get some investment to help us to get up to the next step. As well as cash it will be helpful for us to have two people joining our board from Channel 4 who very accomplished in the broadcasting business.
“This will help is invest more in original content and uncovering more great stories. We want to be able to put people on planes and trains to interview people and tell their stories.”
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