Her.ie / Joe.ie

Joe.ie is an online publication which covers tech, sport, casual news and entertainment, targeting the 18-30 male cohort in Ireland and the UK. The website was founded by Irish entrepreneur Niall McGarry in 2010, who felt there was a lack of media that specifically targeted young men in Ireland.

Her.ie is a sister website which launched in 2012, with the aim of reaching younger female audiences in Ireland. The website’s output includes coverage of social issues, celebrity stories, and beauty, fashion and lifestyle content.

Joe.ie claims to reach an average of 1.9 million unique Irish users each month (2022), while Her.ie claims to reach a combined total audience of over 8 million users, across the website and its social media platforms (2023).

The two outlets were operated through McGarry’s company Maximum Media Ltd.

In 2014, McGarry grew the brand with the launch of SPORTSJoe.ie, a website which specifically focused on sports coverage, and in 2015 launched parenting website HerFamily.ie In 2015, Maximum Media expanded into the UK Market with JOE.co.uk.

Much of Maximum Media’s revenue came from native advertising published on the sites, in which branded content is embedded with the outlet's regular output, in the form of articles, videos, podcasts, etc.

By 2018, Maximum began to generate interest from investors looking to take equity in the company. RTE reportedly offered €10-12m for a 49% stake in the company while another valued the company at upwards of €40m (Source: Rogan (2020)) Rather than sell equity. Maximum took on a loan from Beach Point Capital to fund further expansion into the UK and Ireland markets.

However, the fortunes of the company unravelled almost overnight in late 2019. In November 2019, Core Media, the largest media agency in Ireland announced that it was withdrawing all of its campaigns with Maximum Media when it emerged that traffic numbers for a 2017 Joe.ie podcast sponsored by Allied Irish Banks had been artificially inflated by means of a click-farm. Though apparently the responsibility of an individual (unnamed) employee, the fallout from the revelation focused around Niall McGarry. Later that month, he stated that he was stepping away from executive involvement in the Irish business on the grounds that his “personal brand was overshadowing the business” and would instead focus on building UK revenues.

The click-farm controversy exacerbated existing concerns on the part of Beach Point Capital regarding Maximum’s cashflow. Beach Point made their continued support conditional on a major restructuring of the company which saw staff numbers drop from 90 to 52 and which demanded the appointment of a new CEO. The restructuring of the business was further complicated by the negative impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on advertising revenues. Thus, while McGarry remained the largest shareholder, Beach Point began the process of applying to have the company placed in receivership appointing Deloitte to oversee the process in early 2020.

In July 2020 Greencastle Acquisition Limited notified the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission of its intention to fully acquire Maximum Media Limited. Greencastle Capital was a subsidiary of Linton Capital LLP, a private equity firm based in the United Kingdom. Linton Capital LLP was in turn ultimately owned and controlled by David Sefton. After a long history working in oil and gas-related industries, Sefton had signalled an interest in online media outlets through his chairman of Iconic Labs, a London-based new media and technology business. In April 2020 he had already acquired majority (51%) share in The London Economic a digital newspaper which, as of 2023, describe sitsela as “supporting liberal, progressive, pro-European and pro-business viewpoints”.

Following CPCC approval the Greencastle/Maximum was officially concluded in October 2020 (thus ending Niall McGarry’s association with the Joe.ie and Her.ie). Though Sefton had stepped down as Iconic Labs chair in 2019, Greencastle signed a services agreement with Iconic Labs to manage JOE and Her.ie which saw former Iconic CEO John Quinlan appointed as CEO at Maximum.

Key facts

Audience Share

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Ownership Type

Private

Geographic Coverage

National

Content Type

Free content

Data Publicly Available

ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

2 ♥

Media Companies / Groups

Linton Capital LLP

Ownership

Ownership Structure

David Sefton is the 100% Owner of Linton Capital LLP, a London-based investment management firm which is the parent company of Greencastle Capital, who bought Maximum Media, publishers of Joe.ie and Her.ie in 2020.

Individual Owner

Media Companies / Groups
Facts

General Information

Founding Year

2010 Joe.ie and 2012 Her.ie

Affiliated Interests Founder

Niall McGarry

is an Irish entrepreneur who was the founder of Joe.ie and Her.ie, which he owned through his company Maximum Media, until 2020.
McGarry studied Marketing at Limerick Institute of Technology, graduating in 2002. In 2003 he founded Impact Media with Tom Lynskey, a marketing company that represented a number of high profile Irish clients including Supermacs and Eircom.
McGarry founded Joe.ie in 2010, which was quickly followed by Her.ie in 2012. In 2015 he expanded into the UK market with the launch of Joe.co.uk.
Maximum Media went into receivership in May 2020, and was eventually bought by Greencastle Capital Limited, ending McGarry’s association with the company.

Affiliated Interests Ceo

John Quinlan

has been the CEO of Greencastle Media Group (Formerly Maximum Media Limited) since February 2021. His Linkedin profile also refers to the London-based Media Group Iconic Labs at which he was CEO between 2019 and 2021. His LinkedIn does not make any reference to his previous position as CEO at Unilad until the company went into administration in 2018 owing money to creditors and facing an unpaid tax bill. Unilad was a viral video company which largely relied on Facebook reposts. Despite being the fourth biggest publisher on Facebook by August 2018, Unilad apparently struggled to monetize this success and was ultimately acquired/ bought out of administration by rival LadBible.

Contact

Greencastle Media Group

The Lofts

41a Pleasant St

Saint Kevin’s

Dublin 8

D08 KR99

 

Telephone: + 353 (01) 669 6900

 

Website: www.her.ie www.joe.ie

Financial Information

Revenue (in Mill. $)

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Operating Profit (in Mill. $)

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Advertising (in % of total funding)

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Market Share

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