Storyful losses rise in first year of Murdoch reign

Expansion costs at the online news agency established by former RTÉ presenter Mark Little contributed to accumulated losses at the firm increasing by €2.2m to €5.8m, last year.

Storyful was purchased by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for €18m in December 2013 and new abridged accounts show the firm’s accumulated losses jumped by 60% in News Corp’s first full year in ownership.

Numbers employed by the company had tripled, to around 90, at the time of Mr Little exiting the business in June.

Storyful’s chief financial officer, Barry Doyle said yesterday: “2014 was an exceptional year for Storyful.”

He said that following the News Corp acquisition “we embarked upon an expansion to diversify our service offering and significantly invest in our products and technology.

“With the support of News Corp, the investment in our technology infrastructure resulted in the establishment of an R&D unit at our Dublin offices that was supported by the IDA”.

Explaining the increased losses, Mr Doyle said: “We are investing, expanding and growing and while this has resulted in a loss for the year, Storyful is a market leader in what we do and we see this as an investment in the future of the company.”

Mr Doyle declined to say when he expects the firm to record a profit and would say only “while we do not publicly comment on our financial projections, we continue to invest in our operations globally”.