Currency Media Ltd.

Logo of Currency Media Ltd.

Currency Media Limited owns and operates The Currency. The shareholders of which are the two founders and their families.


The Currency was founded by Tom Lyons and Ian Kehoe in September 2019 as a paywalled online news journal. Both Lyons and Kehoe had previously worked on the Business Post. When then Business Post owners, Key Capital, put out feelers regarding the sale of the paper in 2017/18, Lyons and Kehoe contemplated a management buyout but were apparently unable to find a way to make the numbers work. Key Capital subsequently sold the paper to Kilcullen Capital’s Enda O’Coineen instead. Clearly keen to take on the reins of their own news outlet and inspired by the example of digital native news outlets like The Information, The Athletic and Politico, the pair left the Business Post to establish The Currency.


The Currency adopted a hard paywall business model from the outset. The company currently charges €25 per month for subscriptions and, as of 2023, reports having approximately 6,000 subscribers. Subscriptions account for the vast majority of Currency Media Limited’s revenues although the website does sell some advertising and, since 2019, has received sponsorship income to support Currency podcasts from Investec, an international financial services company based in Dublin.


The Currency is effectively owned by the families of Tom Lyons and Ian Kehoe. Lyons and Kehoe directly own 25% each of Currency Media Limited. A further 25% is owned by Tlla Investments Limited which is jointly owned by Tom Lyons and his wife Lynne Andrews. The remaining 25% is owned by MGIK Limited which is jointly owned by Ian Kehoe and Miriam Galvin. 

Key Facts

Business FormCommercial / For-profit
Legal FormPrivate Limited Company

Ownership

Individual Owner

Media Outlets

Facts

Founding Year2019
Contact36 Fitzwilliam Place
Dublin 2
Tax / ID NumberIE649484
Revenue1.25m €
Operating Profit300000
Advertising (in % of total funding)Less than 125,000 €. Less than 10% of total revenue.
Other Influential People
  • Michael McDowell
    is a senator, a barrister and columnist with The Irish Times. Though not a shareholder in The Currency, his Register of Interests as a senator includes a loan note to The Currency for an undisclosed sum. As a barrister, McDowell defended an action taken by Denis O’Brien, the owner of what was then Communicorp (now Bauer Media Ireland) against the Sunday Business Post relating to an article written by Tom Lyons. Ian Kehoe was editor of the Sunday Business Post at the time. McDowell, was a TD for the Progressive Democrat party on a number of occasions between 1987 and 2007. He acted as Attorney-General from 1999 to 2002, as Minister for Justice from 2002 until 2007 and as leader of the Progressive Democrats from 2006 until 2007.