Member Article

Crowdfunding campaign saves Brixton magazine in just 24 hours

A self-starter magazine facing closure was saved by £10,000 in 24-hour crowdfunding drive.

James Matthews-Paul founded Output Magazine four years ago with the hope of becoming “a new voice” in the visual communications space.

Editor at Output Magazine, Ben McCabe, said: “Employing a young team, the magazine made a small profit for its first three years of trading.

“Yet just a year later, having been refused crucial funding to enable the growth that the publication needed, it was on the verge of closing.

“That I sit here now, typing these words, is testament to the generosity of our readership and the power of crowdfunding.”

On Monday February 23rd, the editor-in-chief gave us the news that, wages for the month aside, the company had nothing left in the coffers and would have to close at the end of the week.

Ben continued: “Determined not to go down without a fight, we decided to tell our story and highlight the difficulties that SMEs are currently facing.

“Our plight is by no means out of the ordinary. According to research from the ONS, only 57.1% of business started in 2010, the same year as Output, made it past the three year mark, due largely to challenging economic conditions and a 14% decrease in SME and individual lending over the last five years.

“The reasons why we were refused the credit that would have helped us grow sustainably were the same that affect many smaller businesses.

“Being an independent publication with a young managing director meant that we had no physical collateral to use as security for a loan.

“As a service-based, rather than manufacturing, company — much like 73% of all businesses in the UK — we did not have concrete assets that could tell in our favour.

“As banks and alternative lenders use assets as their main criterion, this makes it all but impossible for such businesses to raise the money they require.”

Following prompting from our readers and conversations between the team, Output embarked on a crowdfunding project through Crowdfunder.co.uk to try and raise the necessary funds for our short-term survival.

With just 24 hours until our doors would have close, the firm were up against the clock to raise the £10k that we needed to keep operating.

Ben added: “Within 20 hours we had reached our target. The publicity from the campaign – 4,576,140 impressions and more than half a million Twitter users reached – helped persuade four potential investors to come forward and begin discussions with us on how to take the company forward.

“Were it not for this project, I would be sat applying for jobs rather than creating content for a vibrant, provocative magazine – something that I now hope we will continue to keep doing for a long time to come.

“The support we received from the Crowdfunder team was incredible, explaining our options and helping to push the message out further.

“Regardless of where a business is, whether it is just starting out or looking for extra funding to push it on to its next stage, Crowdfunder is a platform that everyone should consider as an option for helping their companies or organisations grow.”

To find out more about the campaign, head to: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/stoppress/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .