The publisher stopped producing trade magazine Media Week, which is unrelated to the UK title; men’s weekly IQ; weekly celebrity magazine Insider; and beauty trade magazine Beauty Health & Wellness last month - despite a recruitment drive for UK journalists in February.
ENG Media, which has employed about 80 staff since it launched in 2007, is a division of the Emirates Neon Group, which built its business on outdoor advertising.
A number of staff have not been paid since February, reporting that wages, healthcare and housing were "stopped overnight" after publication of the company's magazines was suspended.
Some employees have launched legal action in an attempt to recover lost wages and to challenge disputes about the validity of ENG’s work permits.
ENG Media stopped printing its magazines after the company's contracted printers refused to print any further issues, citing unpaid bills.
Rehan Merchant, group chief executive of Emirates Neon Group, blamed an ongoing legal dispute with Fujairah Media - which holds the licences for ENG’s radio, magazine and newspaper titles as a prerequisite under UAE laws - and claimed the suspension of publishing is temporary.
He wrote in a letter to advertisers: "ENG’s publishing division will be relaunching the existing titles later down the year from another emirate, as a lot of money and effort has been put into building brand equity in the market."
Dubai, which accounts for an estimated 70% of the UAE’s print circulation, is still suffering from the sharp advertising downturn in the region. Six UAE-based magazines closed last week, while page rates in the Dubai edition of Hello, published by Motivate Publishing, have dropped to $300.
One Dubai-based media executive told Media Week ad revenues are flat compared to last year and companies are maintaining profits by cutting costs.
"The peak year was 2008, and I don’t think revenues will get back to that level until 2012," he said. "No-one can sustain their overheads from the massive slump in the amount of advertising revenue across the region - space on some billboards, which used to be sold for £50,000, is being given away for free."
High-profile executives who have worked at ENG include Mike Orlov, ENG Worldwide publishing director, formerly of Associated Newspapers and Northern & Shell; Ashley Rees, former media development director at ENG Worldwide, who previously worked at IPC and News International; and Neil Petch, former ENG Media managing director, who previously worked at ITP and VNU.
Merchant declined to comment.
.jpg)
.jpg)