The leaders were Ben Lowe, Alan Hayling,who became Chief Exec and Chris Bott who wrote the business and fundraising plan.
[1] The paper gave a controlling interest to a collective of workers and its share issue raised £6.5 million from trade unions and Labour local authority pension funds.
The funding team was led by Chris Bott, along with Nick Horsley the chair of Northern Foods and a representative from Guinness Mahan, the merchant bank.
Left wing celebrities were persuaded to be supporters, including cartoonists such as Ralph Steadman, musicians who performed at the fundraising concert such as Sade and Terance Trent Darb plus comedians, actors, theatre directors and people in the media.
The failure of the paper is attributed to inexperienced staff,[1] "bad management, poor marketing, a commitment to political correctness and ideological purity at the expense of news values".
[2] However the paper was kept afloat during the general election campaign thanks to the extension of an additional subordinated loan from the TGWU, so that its folding would not embarrass the Labour Party.