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September 2, 2013

Jobs at risk as B2B publisher forced into administration

By Gavriel Hollander

A Staffordshire-based B2B publisher has gone into administration, putting 180 jobs at risk.

Public Service, which publishes Public Servant and Planning and Building Control Times, went into administration on 22 August when partners from audit firm Duff & Phelps were appointed as administrators.

According to reports in the Stoke Sentinel, the company went under after investors withdrew their support as it was about to move its stable of titles entirely online.

The Sentinel reported that the administrators froze the company’s accounts, resulting in staff not being paid their salaries this month. The paper quotes an employee as saying: “Some of us knew the company was in trouble. It’s always a giveaway when you can’t order stationery without the direct permission of management.”

A spokesperson for the administrators confirmed the appointment but could not confirm whether all 180 jobs had been lost nor whether any of the publishers’ titles were likely to be put up for sale to raise cash for creditors.

When it was last audited by ABC in December 2011, the flagship Public Servant title had a circulation just short of 11,000.

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