Broadcaster, podcast host and author, Matt Cooper was one of Ireland’s best paid media figures before landing a lucrative sponsorship deal for his new podcast with Ivan Yates, accounts show.
The two have recently launched their Path to Power podcast with aviation leasing firm, AerCap sponsoring the podcast in a deal that Cooper claimed last month could be “the biggest sponsorship deal ever done for an Irish podcast”.
Now, accounts for Cooper’s media firm, Munster Square Productions Ltd show that the Today FM presenter paid himself €438,929 in director’s remuneration in 2022.
The 57-year old is the only director and sole shareholder at the firm and the 2022 payout was a 19 per cent increase on Cooper's remuneration of €369,989 for 2021.
The main business of the firm is ‘Journalism’ and the increase in director’s pay in 2022 resulted in the company recording a post-tax loss of €23,005 for 2022.
The loss for 2022 resulted in the company having an accumulated loss of €11,181 at the end of 2022. During the year, the firm’s cash funds more than doubled rising from €21,233 to €55,544.
The Cork native has been presenting The Last Word on Today FM for 21 years, but Cooper only set up the company in December 2020 and the 2022 accounts are only the second set of accounts filed by the firm to the Companies Office.
The accounts are for a small company and there is no requirement to disclose revenues.
Along with his undisclosed pay as presenter of The Last Word, the prolific Cooper also generates income from columns for The Irish Daily Mail and The Business Post and royalties for books including his most recent work, ‘Who Really Owns Ireland'.
In a recent interview on the Mario Rosentock Podcast, Cooper said: "All the things that I do, I love…with the opportunities I have I want to make the most of them”.
Twice national journalist of the year and twice business journalist of the year, Cooper became the youngest editor of a Sunday broadsheet when appointed as editor of The Sunday Tribune at the age of 30 in 1996, before departing for The Last Word in 2003.
The married father of five along with the likes of Pat Kenny, Claire Byrne, Joe Duffy and Ryan Tubridy is represented by agent Noel Kelly, who negotiated the AerCap sponsorship deal.
While the company figures show a hike in pay in 2022, Cooper’s income from his commercial radio work has been hit a couple of times.
Cooper told The Sunday Independent last month “I’ve never got back to what I was paid in 2009" and later added "twice under Communicorp’s ownership of Today FM, we had our salaries cut without any discussion. Even though we were contractors. On the first occasion, in 2009 there was a 10pc cut immediately.”
Cooper also did a stint on Virgin Media, presenting the Tonight Show with Ivan Yates, but told Mario Rosenstock that the four nights a week TV work on top of his other work commitments took its toll on his health.
He said: "The TV show might have been damaging to my health in that I did develop Type 2 diabetes during the run of doing the show.”
Cooper said that he today manages his Type 2 diabetes and that it is now under control.
