The UK arm of Joe Media, the online news and podcast producer, has been rescued through a pre-pack administration deal by Setanta Sports tycoon Mickey O’Rourke.

The owner of Joe’s UK assets, Greencastle, collapsed owing HMRC £4 million. Its other unsecured creditors included TikTok and Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram.

Joe Media publishes the male-focused news and sports site Joe.co.uk. It also makes podcasts and video for various social media platforms. In 2022, it caused a storm when one of its journalists, testing supply and demand theory, sold eggs for £10 each beside a Margaret Thatcher statue.

The business also owns titles including Gay Star News, The London Economic and Lovin’ Media.

Despite building a large audience of young social media users, Joe has struggled to find serious revenues in the UK market. Many digital news publishers have found it hard to make enough from advertising. In the US, BuzzFeed and Vice have been forced to cut back significantly.

Greencastle had itself bought Joe’s UK assets out of administration in 2020. The latest administration, in December, resulted in a £3.6 million pre-pack sale to O’Rourke’s JMG Media, documents filed at Companies House show. Greencastle’s secured creditor, the lender Beach Point Capital, received £3.3 million to pay off debts.

O’Rourke was previously a minority shareholder in Greencastle. At the same time as the pre-pack deal, he also bought Joe’s Irish business.

A spokesman for Joe Media said that the business was profitable and that the new funding from O’Rourke would be used to grow and acquire new assets.