Digital media start-up the Currency, which was founded by former Business Post newspaper editors Ian Kehoe and Tom Lyons, has entered profit in its second full year of operation.
Currency Media, the company behind the financial journalism site, recorded a profit last year of almost €95,000, according to financial statements for the 12 months to the end of last September, which were filed this week. This compared with a loss of €276,000 in the prior 16 months from the company's inception in May 2019.
The company’s accounts show cash on its balance sheet of about €866,000. Its directors, comprising Currency Media’s chief executive Mr Lyons and the publication’s editor, Mr Kehoe, who is also a member of RTÉ’s board, shared €163,000 in pay between them, the accounts show.
McDowell link
The company is wholly owned by the two journalists and their families. The Currency’s backers also include former senator Michael McDowell, who recently disclosed a loan to the business in his Oireachtas register of interests. Mr McDowell is also a regular columnist for The Irish Times.
Mr Lyons confirmed on Tuesday that the number of paying subscribers to the publication stands at 5,500.
The website launched in 2019, months after the Business Post successfully defended a defamation trial brought by businessman Denis O’Brien relating to an article in the Sunday newspaper written by Mr Lyons and edited by Mr Kehoe. Mr McDowell was the respondents’ barrister in that case.
