Press Association operator The PA Group got £5.9 million more revenue at £81.4 million in 2007 - but operating profit fell from £2.6 million to £1.4 million on “significant investment” in multimedia and its US data operation PA SportsTicker. PA has seen 25 percent growth from digital markets.

CEO Paul Potts (via PG): “We have built another layer of content – video – to the traditional wire service of text, photos and graphics. This has meant developing considerable multimedia production as well as video gathering capabilities. Inevitably the scale of this commitment is reflected in the lower operating profits.” By year’s end, PA “will have completed our journey from a pure domestic news agency to a fully-integrated, multi-skilled, multimedia information group”.

A strategic review that could lead to selling PA Sport, announced in March, is still ongoing, but Potts warned increasing rights restrictions on photographing, and using multimedia at, major sporting occasions could hamper the business: “The strengthening of restrictions by governing bodies has the potential to impact on our ability to sell images in certain market areas but we are confident we can work through these issues.”

In a surprise move, News Corp (NYSE: NWS) Europe and Asia CEO James Murdoch is joining the PA board as a non-executive director, along with one from PA’s own MeteoGroup weather unit. Potts is taking over as executive chairman after Sir Harry Roche’s 13-year tenure. Release.