Bonus payments at Storyful increase to €602,488 as losses reduce by 15%

Gordon Deegan

Bonus payments to staff at the Rupert Murdoch-owned Dublin-headquartered social media intelligence and online news agency, Storyful, increased to €602,488 last year.

New accounts have shown that staff at Storyful Ltd shared a staff bonus of €602,488 in the 12 months to the end of June last.

This followed a bonus payout of €556,958 in 2024, a total of €1.15 million over the two years.

Staff at the News Corporation-owned Storyful Ltd enjoyed the increased bonus in 2025 as pre-tax losses reduced by 15 per cent from €2.66 million in 2024 to €2.24 million last year.

The business reduced its losses as revenues increased marginally from €3.44 million to €3.49 million in the 12 months to the end of June 2025.

The Irish unit recorded the losses “as the company continued to expand services for media, brands and social platforms and made investments in the product and technology departments”.

The directors stated that “not all of global wider group revenue figures are included in these results and therefore this report should be interpreted only with respect to Storyful Limited”.

The firm’s administrative expenses reduced from €4.64 million to €4.4 million, and the directors state that “these expenses continued to be tightly controlled and are driven primarily by payroll costs and intangible assets amortization charge”.

The business last year recorded the pre-tax losses after booking combined non-cash depreciation and amortisation costs of €685,754.

The loss also takes into account a loss of €56,735 in exchange differences and restructuring costs of €13,487.

The firm’s lease costs increased from €408,847 to €413,066.

The firm did benefit from an R&D tax credit of €136,275

Numbers employed remained at 64 with 30 in editorial, 19 in technology and development, 12 in general and administration and three in sales and marketing.

Staff costs, which included the bonus payments of €602,488 last year, totalled €6.08 million, an increase on the €5.8 million paid out in the prior year.

Former RTÉ Primetime presenter Mark Little set up the company in 2010. Little and the company’s investors sold it to News Corp for €18 million in December 2013.

A note relating to the company’s going concern status states that the directors are satisfied that appropriate measures have been taken to bring about the company's profitability.

They state that the funding provided by and available from the shareholder is sufficient to enable the company to meet its liabilities as they fall due.

In a post-balance sheet event, the company received a capital injection of €2.5 million last November, following a capital injection of €3 million in the 12 months to the end of June last year.

The pay package for directors decreased from €925,928 to €890,605 which was made up of remuneration of €714,247, €141,714 under long term incentive plans and €34,644 in pension contributions.

At the end of June last, accumulated losses of €60.77 million were offset by the share premium account of €62.04 million and called-up share capital of €392,075, resulting in shareholders’ funds of €1.66 million.