50 jobs lost as RSS feed company goes into administration

LEEDS-BASED content distribution company Mediafed has called in administrators after it was unable to compete with the growth of social media.

The business, which employed 50 people, had recently moved its registered address to Oulton Road in Leeds from London in February.

Joint administrators from RSM, Adrian Allen and Willie Duncan, were appointed on 18 April 2016.

The business operated a technology platform bringing in RSS feeds, enabling the distribution of breaking news content to all RSS-driven digital devices.

In 2012, Mediafed chief executive Ashley Harrison told TechCrunch that the business reached 170m people across the globe.

At the time it had offices in Australia, Korea, Brazil, Russia and China and had acquired tablet reader Taptu, a company that received $18m in venture capital funding.

For the year to 31 March 2013 it reported turnover of £5.07m. The following year it’s accounts had been changed to abbreviated accounts, and the company received an external cash injection of £560,000 as it acknowledged it faced “significant challenges” in the market.

Willie Duncan, restructuring partner based out of RSM’s Leeds office and one of the Joint Administrators said: ‘The Company has made significant efforts to avoid an insolvency process and preserve the Company’s business for the benefit of its members and creditors.

“Unfortunately an Administration process became unavoidable and the Joint Administrators are currently seeking to maximise realisations for creditors.”

In 2013, Google Reader, the internet giant’s own version of an RSS feed reader was discontinued.