The Times rounds up some of the top executive pay in the media world last year. Compensation was way up from 2008 for many, including Les Moonves, who made $43 million (twice what he made the previous year). Viacom’s Philippe Dauman made $34 million, and Sumner Redstone, his boss, made $33 million. These compensation packages were tied to performance, which at those companies improved significantly last year due to massive cuts across the media industry which led to profits but not necessarily increased revenue. Here are some more:
• Comcast’s Brian Roberts and Stephen Burke were paid $25 million and $31 million, respectively.
• Gannett’s Craig Dubuw was paid $4.4 million.
• The Times’ Janet Robinson and Arthur Sulzberger Jr. were paid $4.9 million and $4.8 million (the latter was a 171 percent increase from 2008).
• McClatchy’s Gary Pruitt was paid $2.6 million.
• Disney’s Bob Iger was paid $21.6 million, a drop from the previous year. Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes also was paid less, earning $19.4 million last year.
• News Corp.’s big names were paid less, too. Rupert Murdoch made $18 million, and Roger Ailes made $14.6 million, about 40 and 20 percent less than they’d made the previous years.
Compare these top numbers to the executives of America’s beleaguered financial institutions. The top-paid bank head was Wells Fargo’s John Stumpf, who earned a reported $18.8 million package, substantially less than his top-paid media counterparts.
