NYTimes' Execs Take Cut In Compensation

It would appear executive compensation is a similar story to the NYTimes' print advertising revenues, which is to say it is declining -- though perhaps not as drastically as a few years earlier.

Chief executive officer and president Mark Thompson took a 43.1 percent cut in total compensation last year to $4.9 million from $8.7 million in 2015. But, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, his 2016 pay was still higher than his total compensation in 2014, which amounted to $4.5 million. (His 2015 compensation was inflated by a special-equity grant, the filing said.)

Digging into last year’s numbers, Thompson’s salary remained constant at $1 million, but his stock awards took the brunt of the hit, diving 60 percent to $2 million from $2.6 million in 2015.

Chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. maintained his salary of $1.1 million, but his total compensation slid 12.6 percent to $5.1 million. Unlike Thompson, Sulzberger’s stock awards ticked up 2 percent to $2 million, but his non-equity incentive plan compensation dipped 29.9 percent to $1.9 million.

Meanwhile, according to wnd.com, executive vice president and chief revenue officer Meredith Kopit Levien got a salary boost of 6 percent to $612,346, but her total compensation shrank 5.9 percent to $1.7 million, due to a 9.2 percent decline in stock awards to $524,179 and a 16.7 percent dip in non-equity incentive plan pay to $472,069.

The Times’ vice chairman Michael Golden saw his total compensation slip 12.1 percent to $1.9 million on a salary of  $627,000, while James Follo, executive vice president and chief financial officer, increased his total compensation 16 percent to $2.3 million on a salary of $571,083.

In 2016, The Times said its net income declined 54 percent to $29.1 million, or earnings per share of 18 cents, as total revenues declined 1.5 percent to $1.56 billion.