Left-wing news website The Canary says it has suspended operations with immediate effect after a second bank account was blocked, impacting its ability to pay staff and contractors.
The Canary first said it had been “debanked” by Lloyds, restricting access to its money, at the end of June.
It has now said Metro Bank has frozen access to a separate account. It has said neither bank gave a reason for doing so.
The Canary said on Friday it has “been left with no responsible alternative but to suspend the Canary’s operations with immediate effect.
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly, nor is it a decision caused by any failure of the Canary or its leadership. It is the direct consequence of the debanking of the Canary’s funds, the resulting financial disruption, and the serious internal consequences that followed.”
The initial “debanking” by Lloyds led to The Canary suspending publication of its new weekday print tabloid newspaper after just two weeks.
In a post published on Friday (4 September), The Canary said that since June staff have “experienced delays in receiving their wages” and pension payments have been paused to ensure employees could get paid.
It said that at one point its website “was unavailable for a few hours because the direct debit required to pay for the service could no longer be processed as the bank account had been closed”.
The Canary also cited “uncertainty and frustration among some members of staff” that led to “serious internal misconduct by some staff and significant disruption within the organisation”.
The Guardian reported on Friday, before The Canary said it was suspending publication, that £2m had been contributed to the business last year by UsedCarsNI.com co-founder Cecil Hetherington who became a major shareholder.
But staff told The Guardian just £400,000 of that cash remains and they have been told this summer they could all be at risk of redundancy.
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