Gript Media Limited is the owner and operator of Gript.ie. It was registered with the Companies Registration Office in August 2018. Gript Media Ltd has two shareholders with equal shares in the company: Niamh Uí Bhriain and Evelyn Porter.
Gript.ie was established as an online news outlet by John McGuirk, previously best known for his association with businessman and political activist Declan Ganley and for his work with the campaign to retain the constitutional ban on abortion which was removed following a referendum on the subject in 2018.
A 2019 Sunday Business Post article suggested that Gript had spent €50,000 on establishment costs and planned to spend a further €80,000 per annum on recurring costs. However, the annual accounts of the company do not report revenues, expenditures or profit and loss - as is permitted for small companies under the 2014 Companies Act. This makes it difficult to assess the impact (of any) of external financial influences on the company.
The company earns some revenues from a soft paywall (the most recent articles are freely available but older material requires a €10, €25 or €50 subscription depending on level of access) but there is no information publicly available regarding the numbers of subscribers.
An Irish Times article from 2020 described the initial establishment of Gript.ie as having been funded by “The Life Institute and donations from supporters.” (Gript.ie also shares a postal address with The Life Institute.) However, this adds little clarity to any understanding of Gript.ie’s finances since it is not entirely clear where the revenues of The Life Institute’s own finances are derived from. The Life Institute was co-founded in 2008 by Niamh Uí Bhriain (one of two shareholders in Gript Media Limited and a frequent contributor to its news output) as a pro-life campaign organisation to promote the sanctity of human life and the protection of the family. The initial capital for The Life Institute of some €410,000 was, according to co-founder Niamh Uí Bhriain raised from “an independent voluntary organisation sympathetic to the company’s aims and objectives”. However the specific identity of that voluntary organisation has not been publicly disclosed.
