Storyful pays bonuses as media monitoring firm racks up losses

New accounts show that staff at the slimmed-down Storyful shared a staff bonus of €581,415 in the 12 months to the end of last June, following a similar payout of €553,339 in 2021.

Accounts for the Rupert Murdoch-owned company show that pre-tax losses last year narrowed by 41pc to €3.968m.

The Dublin-headquartered business reduced its losses even as revenues dipped marginally from €4.57m to €4.48m.

The firm implemented a restructuring in fiscal 2021 and the new accounts show that the numbers employed at the Irish unit fell from 89 to 62 last year while staff costs were reduced from €7.05m to €5.6m, including the staff bonus.

Not all of Storyful’s global revenues are included in the results and relate only to the Irish entity, Storyful Ltd.

Former RTÉ Prime Time presenter Mark Little set up Storyful in 2010, selling it to News Corp for €18m in December 2013.

A note attached to the accounts states that the directors have considered the losses to date and report they are satisfied that appropriate measures have been taken to bring about the company’s profitability.

Salaries and fees to directors last year increased from €530,505 to €620,378.

The firm’s accumulated losses of €52.7m were offset by share premium account of €56m and called up share capital of €389,075 resulting in shareholders’ funds of €3.65m at the end of June 2022.