The directors of the company behind the Journal Media group were paid more than €1 million last year despite recording an operating loss and a decline in revenues amid a rising cost base.
Distilled Media Group (DMG) Ltd, which operates the Journal, 42.ie and Noteworthy platforms and owns 50 per cent of Daft.ie and Adverts.ie, also approved a resolution to make loan facilities available to the directors, brothers Eamonn and Brian Fallon and Paul Kenny.
In recently-filed consolidated group accounts, DMG, which could not be reached for comment on Thursday, posted an operating loss of €2.3 million last year compared with a loss of €292,000 in the previous 12-month period.
A dividend payment of €7.4 million paid to the entity by Distilled Ltd left it with an after-tax profit of €4.4 million for 2022. This was down from an after-tax profit of €6.5 million in 2021, when it received a €5.8 million dividend.
DMG also received EU grants totalling €323,000 in the year, according to the filings.
Distilled Ltd, which operates property listing website Daft.ie, is a separate entity, formed in 2015 with the merger between Daft, founded by the Fallon brothers, and Norway-based Schibsted Media Group’s DoneDeal.ie. That company – which is 50 per cent owned by the Fallons, who hold their shares through DMG, and 50 per cent owned by Adevinta, a Schibsted spin-off – reported profits of more than €7.5 million for 2022 in accounts filed earlier this year.
Turnover at DMG, meanwhile, declined from €4.9 million in 2021 to €4.3 million.
Operating losses widened amid an increase in group administrative expenses, including salaries and other payment benefits. DMG’s wage bill increased by close to €722,000 in the year, or about 21 per cent, to €4.1 million despite a decline in the group’s headcount from 62 to 61.
[ Company owned by Daft.ie founders shares pretax dividend of €7.4mOpens in new window ]
In a report attached to the accounts, the directors also say the company “completed a Summary Approval Procedure during the year to be able to make loan facilities available to certain of the directors, to be drawn down at the discretion of the company”.
The directors cited a deterioration of economic conditions, “in particular the advertising market”, among the main risks facing the business. However, they said the group has “a long and successful track record of managing these risks” and the directors are confident of dealing with them as they arise.
