Social news website Joe.co.uk has been bought out of administration by venture capital firm Greencastle Capital and will be run by two former Unilad executives.
London’s Iconic Labs, with Unilad founders Liam Harrington and John Quinlan at the helm, has signed a deal to manage all parts of the Joe business for a monthly management fee of £50,000 plus external costs.
It will also receive 25% of profits if certain revenue and profit targets are met. Joe Media was put into administration in May.
Harrington, Iconic’s Chief Business Officer, said he and Quinlan would “transfer the skills used to build one of the world’s largest digital publishers in Unilad and use them to grow and develop in Joe Media what is already a prestigious brand with an offering that is unique and unrivalled in quality within the market”.
He added: “We have many unused plans that can now be rolled out to help Joe Media further develop further as the market leader within the digital space in the UK and Ireland.
We also intend to look at joint ventures or other opportunities with existing broadcast media.”Iconic Chief Executive Quinlan told Press Gazette that they wanted to build on Joe’s news content and combine its “credible tone” with the techniques they used to make Unilad the biggest social media publisher in the world.
