INDEPENDENT NETWORK News (INN), which provides national news coverage to a number of local radio stations in Ireland, is to cease trading on October 30th with the loss of 16 jobs.
Staff were informed of the move yesterday at its office on Lower Mount Street, Dublin. They were told that the news provider was projected to make a loss of about €1 million in the current financial year. INN’s annual turnover is believed to have been just more than €1.5 million annually.
In a statement, INN chief executive John O’Connor said: “Unfortunately the company is no longer financially viable and is making unsustainable losses on a monthly basis, to the extent that the board, having considered all other options, has been left with no alternative but to arrive at this very difficult decision.”
Mr O’Connor said the decision was “due to a collapse in advertising revenue, our primary source of income, from the first quarter of this year”.
INN was established in 1997 to provide an independent national and international news service for the commercial radio sector.
It began as an audio news service delivering bulletins across 21 radio stations but grew into to one of Ireland’s leading multi-media news and sport content providers.
It is owned by 16 independent radio station shareholders. UTV is the biggest shareholder with a stake of 40 per cent.
Denis O’Brien’s Radio 2000 owns 16 per cent, while Radio Kerry has a 10 per cent share. Galway Bay FM and Midlands Radio both own more than 5 per cent each.
The local stations will now have to find an alternative supplier. One possible provider is Newstalk, which is also owned by Mr O’Brien. It has been supplying national news to some local stations for some time.
INN’s latest filed accounts related to the year ended November 30th 2007. They show its accumulated profits had declined to €41,200 from €137,985, indicating the company had been loss making that year.
The company owed its creditors €450,940 while a shareholders loan of €189,784 was outstanding. It had total assets of €111,707.
The auditors report stated that the net assets of the company were less than half of the amount of its called-up share capital, with the result that there existed a “financial situation” that required the convening of an extraordinary general meeting of the company.
