PA Media Group has grown its revenue for the eighth year in a row, once again marking the highest in its 145-year history.
Revenue for PA Media Group, which includes the PA Media news agency and other content businesses, was up by 3% to £116.3m in the year to 31 December 2024.
However profit before tax was slightly down, by 4% to £8.6m according to new accounts filed at Companies House.
In April 2024 PA Media Group changed chief executive for the first time in 14 years as Clive Marshall was succeeded by Emily Shelley, formerly boss of the company’s photo agency business Alamy.
The company’s accounts said: “Emily undertook a strategic review and set out an ambitious vision for growth and innovation, building on strong foundations and customer focus.”
Also in 2024 chief operating officer Andrew Dowsett and chief financial officer James Goode left the business. Gareth Bramall was promoted from director of data and streaming services to chief strategy officer while Jessica Taylor was promoted from HR director to chief people officer.
So far in 2025 PA Media Group has appointed a chief revenue officer (Ranj Begley, joining from Readly), chief financial officer (Bruce Marson, joining from M&C Saatchi) and chief technology officer (David Henderson, joining from Global).
A new group structure has been put in place that groups the business units “by customer type” to “support collaboration, efficiency and shared opportunities for investment”.
The four business units are: news agency PA Media, Podium (racing and sports data, formerly PA Betting Services), Alamy, and PR and Marketing Services.
Last year was the first full year since PA Media Group acquired 85% of the share capital of Singapore-based iRace, now part of Podium, and the company said it is “instrumental in the division’s plan to grow global sales of real-time racing and sports data”.
Also in 2024, the group said social media agency Hydrogen “delivered significant growth”, Alamy secured “several deals” for its image and video archive to be used for AI training and continued an e-commerce drive, and PA Training rebranded to PA Media Academy with more courses.
Priorities for 2025, the company accounts said, include:
- “Embedding the new executive team and developing leadership talent.
- Capitalising on market opportunities through services and product innovation, and greater collaboration.
- Strengthening core technology and data platforms and continuing to develop the use of downstream AI.
- Securing acquisitions that are value enhancing to our existing high-growth businesses.
- Continuing to deliver customer and shareholder value.”
Dividends of 94.16p per share were recommended (ordinary dividend of 48.02p and extraordinary dividend of 46.14p). Total dividends of £7.5m were paid in the year, the same as in 2023. PA is mainly owned by a mixture of national and regional news publishers.
The group has £24.4m in cash and cash equivalents in the bank, up from £21m in 2023.
Average monthly staff numbers in 2024 were down slightly compared to 2023, from 992 to 987, with a drop in operations staff (658 to 636) and an increase in administration roles (248 to 267).
In 2024 PA Media Group was forced to recognise the National Union of Journalists for editorial staff.
Then this year, months after the departure of editor-in-chief Pete Clifton and arrival of successor Jack Lefley, staff were told of plans to cut 8% of UK editorial staff in the PA Media newsroom.
The highest-paid director earned £476,000 in the period (plus £90,000 in long-term incentive payments). This compared with salary of £742,000 and incentive payments of £325,000 for the highest-paid director in 2023.
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