Maximum Media attracts 2.5 million unique users each month to its growing portfolio of sites which include her.ie, joe.ie, sportsjoe and from this week, herfamily.ie.
Niall McGarry - the Mayoman behind Maximum Media - says the company's new parenting website - herfamily.ie - will take a new approach to parenting with relatable content for today's parents. The new site will be headed by by Sive O'Brien, from Image magazine. Since it was launched in 2010, joe.ie has become a huge success and was followed in the Maximum stable by her.ie in 2012, Mr McGarry says. Sportsjoe.ie was the third site for the company and herfamily.ie marks its fourth offering.
Mr McGarry says the four sites now attract over 2.5 million unique visitors a month, while they also have a large social media following. Together they have a Facebook base of over 586,000 people as well as a Twitter following of over 298,000. He says that display advertising is very important to the company and makes up about 30% of its business. Looking ahead, he says the company is planning a big launch in the UK in March.
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MORNING BRIEFS - The rate of employment growth in the Irish services sector has hit its highest level in 14 years. Companies involved in financial and business services, tourism and leisure have been hiring new staff at a rapid clip as they see a surge in new orders and are expanding to meet demand. The latest services PMI from Investec, a monthly measure of sentiment and activity in the services sector, shows staffing levels have now increased in the sector for 28 months in a row. New business, export orders, profitability and sentiment are all on the rise, according to the December survey.
*** US bank JPMorgan has paid an undisclosed sum, reported to have been in the region of $100m, to settle a lawsuit that alleged manipulation of foreign exchange rates. Several parties including the city of Philadelphia and a number of pension funds, had sued the bank and a number of its peers claiming they had conspired to rig the currency market in their favour. JPMorgan's involvement in the case, which also includes Bank of America, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, is now at an end. Separately, however, it is still the subject of a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice.
*** China is fast-tracking 300 infrastructure projects valued at $1 trillion in an effort to boost economic growth. The investment will be funded partly by the central and local governments and partly through the private sector. It will include mining, oil and gas, transport and clean energy projects. The last time China embarked on a spending spree on this scale was in 2008 in response to the financial crisis.
*** US crude oil fell below $50 in Asian trading while Brent crude, the more influential benchmark in this part of the world, dropped under $53 after new figures showed Russian oil output at post-Soviet era highs and Iraqi exports at their highest levels since the late 1970s.
*** The euro too remained under heavy downward pressure. The single currency hit a nine year low of $1.1860 before recovering to $1.1950 and 78.4 pence sterling.
