Former Liverpool and Ireland defender Phil Babb has stepped in to save the financially struggling GolfPunk magazine, following the departure of its finance director, who had also worked with the Non-League Paper.
Tim Southwell, GolfPunk‘s award-winning founding editor, left the magazine recently amid reports that, despite its critical success, the title had been struggling commercially. There had also been complaints from contributors that their work had gone unpaid or they had received cheques that had bounced.
It now emerges that it became clear that the publication was facing financial problems following the departure in the summer of Jonathan Stobart, the magazine’s finance director. Stobart had also been the finance director of the Non-League Paper, which went into administration in June.
Despite the Non-League Paper being taken over by another company and being re-launched, dozens of freelance journalists were left out of pocket by its closure, some losing out by thousands of pounds. At the time, David Emery, the founder of the Non-League Paper, said, “We’ve all been victims of an elaborate financial swindleâ€, and that the police had become involved.
According to a report in today’s Guardian, “Stobart says that his departure from GolfPunk and the Non-League Paper was not connected with his management of the companies. ‘I refute any suggestion that there were problems with the GolfPunk accounts. I left in May and continued to have cordial relations with them after I left. It is absolutely not the case.'”
Babb has stepped in at GolfPunk as publisher. Babb was an early investor in the title along with his former Sunderland team mates Michael Gray, Thomas Sorensen, Stephen Wright and Jason McAteer.
Read our previous reports on the Non-League Paper here.