Wotnews to shut down on June 23 as development team heads to New York

Wotnews, the news aggregation site started by Richard Slatter and then purchased by prolific investor Graeme Wood, has announced it will shut down this weekend.

The closure appears to be related to the movements of the site’s development team, Brisbane-based development company Hunted Media – the team responsible for the popular Spotify app, We Are Hunted.

Wood, the founder of online travel company Wotif, bought a 50% stake in the company in 2008. He told SmartCompany at the time the technology behind the business was a major attraction.

In a message on the Wotnews site, the Hunted Media team says Wotnews will be closing down on June 23rd and the company will be moving to New York.

“We are busy working on our other site,” the message reads, referring to the We Are Hunted app. The team has a partnership deal with Spotify.

“All member data will be deleted on the 23rd June, 2012…thanks, and best of luck,” it says.

Wotif, along with We Are Hunted co-founder and general manager Richard Slatter, were contacted by SmartCompany this morning, but neither was available prior to publication.

The Wotnews site originally started as news aggregator Plugger. In 2008, Wood invested a 50% stake and brokered a licensing deal that resulted in the site changing its name to Wotnews.

The deal was announced on the Australian Stock Exchange at the time, but no revenue details were revealed. A license fee was to be calculated by gross revenue generated by Plugger, which wouldn’t trigger until the revenue hit a certain level.

However, it remains unexplained why the development team’s departure has caused the site to close.