A MASSIVE BLOW FOR ENNISCORTHY
WIDESPREAD SHOCK AND ANGER AS ECHO GROUP GOES INTO LIQUIDATION
THERE was widespread shock, sadness and anger in Enniscorthy last week when news broke that Echo Newspapers, which has been in existence in the town since 1902, had gone into liquidation.
Staff at the newspaper spoke of their devastation at learning of the paper’s demise when liquidators read out a statement at their Enniscorthy premises.
Echo CEO Murry McDonald said: ‘I’m absolutely devastated. I’ve been working at the paper for 30 years and that part of my life is gone, it’s very difficult.’
Dan Walsh, who has worked with the company since 1970, said ‘staff were just let go out of the blue and we had no idea it was happening’.
There was also considerable anger among staff at how owners Landmark Media handled events last week.
Liquidator Kieran Wallace confirmed that the paper would not be published while they pursue a buyer.
MURRY MCDONALD, the shellshocked chief executive of Wexford Echo Limited, said he and his staff were ‘devastated’ by the shock liquidation of the company which publishes four Wexford titles.
‘I’m absolutely devastated. I’ve been working at the paper for 30 years and that part of my life is gone, it’s very difficult,’ he said.
Speaking last Friday, Mr McDonald said there will be no Echo published ‘next week’ and he believed ‘the titles could be sold off’.
He criticised the newspaper company’s owners Landmark Media Group, which sprung news of the shock decision on him a couple of hours before the provisional liquidation hearing came before the High Court last Thursday.
‘I was called to a meeting at 12 o’clock with the divisional manager and the HR manager, and was told that the company was being put into provisional liquidation,’ Mr McDonald told this newspaper.
‘We’ve all been laid off without pay and put on notice,’ he said.
Mr McDonald said by Friday, less then 24 hours later, shocked members of staff were ‘clearing their desks’ and meeting the liquidators to discuss their options.
‘Things are in the very early stages and as of now we don’t know where we stand,’ he said.
Mr McDonald said he did not know in advance of Thursday’s meeting about his company’s net liabilities of €834,000.
He said he had since asked the provisional liquidator Kieran Wallace, an insolvency practitioner with KPMG, ‘what the position is and for a statement of affairs to be prepared, but he didn’t have it when I asked’.
‘It’s very early in the process. It could take weeks,’ said Mr McDonald.
The High Court was told that Mr Wallace will keep the Wexford Echo, Gorey Echo, New Ross Echo and Enniscorthy Echo open in the hope that a buyer for the titles can be found.
Mr McDonald said, however, he was hopeful rather than optistic that this would happen.
He said the decision had come out of the blue.
‘We knew something was coming down the line, possibly the sale of the group, but nobody expected this,’ he said.
Mr McDonald said the company’s accounts had been centralised in Cork in 2014, and that he had not been given enough information to come up with a cost-cutting solution.
‘We’re effectively in a consultaton process now. I would say the titles will be sold off and it will be started again from the ground up, if at all,’ he said.
‘I blame them (Landmark Media) for the lack of information and feedback to us to address the loss-making situation,’ he said.
Mr McDonald said he had called several members of staff, including the editor Tom Mooney, who were away on holiday to break the terrible news that the paper had gone and their jobs were lost.
‘He (Tom) was as devastated as everybody else. We have a number of staff members on holiday abroad. They have all had to cope with the news and deal with it.. we have no incomes now,’ he said.