Posted on 04/12/2008 4:19:58 AM PDT by abb
ping
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120795962366509487.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news
CBS’s Moonves Receives 29% Pay Raise
By MERISSA MARR
April 12, 2008; Page A7
CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves got a 29% bump in his compensation in 2007, reaping a package valued at $36.8 million, according to a proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The compensation package, ranking among the biggest in the media industry, was awarded in a year in which CBS’s stock fell about 13% and its net income tumbled 25%. While the company generated significant cash last year, its core TV and radio businesses stumbled.
Shares in CBS, which has a market value of about $15 billion, have steadily declined from a high of $35.75 last July, falling about 20% so far this year. The stock was just off its 52-week low at $21.40 in 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday.
Mr. Moonves’s earnings included a salary of $5.3 million and a bonus of $18.5 million, according to the proxy filed late Friday.
Asked to comment on the compensation, a CBS spokesman said in a statement: “A significant portion of his reported compensation in 2007 is related to stock that was given to him in past years and was required to be reported this year, as well as some overlapping reporting of stock-based compensation from his old deal and new deal.”
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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cbs12apr12,1,1741777.story
From the Los Angeles Times
COMPENSATION
CBS’ Moonves gets a 28% raise as ratings, ad sales drop
The network CEO received $36.8 million last year, including an $18.5-million cash bonus.
By Meg James
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 12, 2008
At a time when corporate chieftains are coming under fire for their outsize pay packages, here’s another to add to the list: Leslie Moonves.
The CBS Corp. chief executive, whose network is suffering from ratings and ad declines, got a 28% boost in total compensation in 2007 to $36.8 million, outstripping peers at Time Warner, Walt Disney and News Corp., all of which are much bigger companies.
Moonves, 58, joins a club of top-tier CEOs whose personal incomes are drawing scrutiny while the economy is worsening and the performance of their companies is slackening. Disclosure of Moonves’ pay package, in a proxy filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, also comes as the company is laying off employees.
“That goes against the trend. We are seeing no increases and even reductions in salary,” said James F. Reda, a New York-based consultant on executive compensation. “To have a 28% increase is really unusual.”
In 2007, Moonves collected $5.3 million in salary and $18.5 million in cash bonuses. He also received more than $12.5 million in stock and option awards, according to the proxy. Of that, nearly $4.5 million were stock awards made before 2007. In 2006, he earned $28.6 million in salary, stock and bonuses.
snip
And yet more good news!
Gannett Stock Hits New 52-Week Low as Entire Newspaper Sector Sinks
By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: April 11, 2008 5:08 PM ET
CHICAGO Stock of Gannett Co. Inc. scrapped a new 52-week low Friday as a slumping Dow dragged down nearly the entire newspaper sector.
On a day when many newspaper executives were leaving town for the joint convention of publishers, editors, and production managers in Washington, D.C., Wall Street gave media companies a rude shove to get going.
Gannett (NYSE: GCI) closed at $27.62, down 97 cents, or 3.9%. It had previously traded in a 52-week range of $27.77 to $61.68.
The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI), the nation’s third-largest newspaper publisher, ended down 4.53% on the day, trading off 47 cents to $9.92.
Investors hammered down troubled Journal Register Co. (NYSE: JRC), which had been slowly rebounding from its historic low of 16 cents last week. The stock closed at 26 cents, off 2 cents, or 5.36% on volume of about 1.4 million shares — nearly triple its usual daily trading.
New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) stock fell on news that RiskMetrics proxy advisor unit, Institutional Shareholders Services, recommended withhold votes for three directors who serve on the company’s compensation committee. The unwelcome recommendation upset the Times Co.’s plans for a smooth election of directors after making peace with dissident stockholders Harbinger Capital Partners and Firebrand Investments.
Times stock ended the day at $19.06, down 60 cents, or 3.05%.
Lee Enterprises, GateHouse Media Inc., and Sun-Times Media Group were all also losers on the day. The only exception to the down day was A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC), which ended unchanged at $10.41.
Mark Fitzgerald (mfitzgerald@editorandpublisher.com) is E&P’s editor-at-large.
Links referenced within this article
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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003788888
"Hello! I am Katie Couric, and this is my "Notebook!!" She then blathers on for 2 minutes or so about some stupid subject that she didn't even write (it was written for her by an underpaid staffer).
It is a race to see who can change the channel fastest when she comes on.
If See BS had only read the posts and taken our advice here on FR back when they were contemplating hiring her from the bubble headed "Today" show to the See BS anchor chair, they would be $75 Million Dollars richer today.
I have an idea that might boost ratings a bit:
THE TRUTH!
They’d be surprised at how many people would watch.
NYT Spin: “a New York State judge ruled on Thursday that Dan Rather, the now craggy face who was synonymous with the CBS eye for a generation, could continue to pursue a lawsuit against his former employer.”
Actual story: “Breaking: The judge in Dan Rather’s lawsuit against CBS has issued a motion to dismiss most of the case. CBS News confirms.
TVNewser has learned most of issues of the lawsuit have been dismissed. What remains is the contract dispute: whether Rather was utilized appropriately in the remaining months of his deal as a correspondent on 60 Minutes. Jim Quinn, lead counsel for CBS tells TVNewser, “We’re thrilled with the results. The core of the allegations of fraud and fair dealing have been thrown out. What’s left is a garden variety contract dispute...”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999584/posts
The one thing that is bringing them all down they just refuse to get. They have a built in bias to everything they report, above all they are chronically negative, and people are fed up with it.
When it comes to a decision between leftist ideology and making your stockholders money, ideology will always win out.
They will then blame the stockholders for the plunging prices.
CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves got a 29% bump in his compensation in 2007, reaping a package valued at $36.8 million,
Can you imagine what he would have gotten if he had done a good job as CEO?
I have an idea that might boost ratings a bit:
THE TRUTH!
But they think they are reporting the truth. Even if they do make it up. It has to be true because they say it is - Dan blather proved that!
Their only hope is to woo Oberman away from the competition.
They're doing a very good job of it with mandates for new light bulbs, corn into ethanol which has totally skewed agriculture and screwed us every which way in the process, mortgage bailouts, and stop signs on domestic oil drilling and increased coal usage just to name a few of the socialist agenda already in place. And don't forget a presidential field with two marxists on one side and a center-left on the other side.
Unbleivable I would loe to have half the compensation that Les Moonves received for a fraction of the failure of results he produced.
How can CBS shareholders possibly sit still for such flagrant incompetence?? Freepers told them they were on a course for thisvery outcome.
>>NYT Spin: “a New York State judge ruled on Thursday that Dan Rather, the now craggy face who was synonymous with the CBS eye for a generation, could continue to pursue a lawsuit against his former employer.”
>>Actual story: “Breaking: The judge in Dan Rather’s lawsuit against CBS has issued a motion to dismiss most of the case. CBS News confirms.
I caught that too, and just shook my head. That’s about as blatant an example of a lie by omission as you can find. Nice work from your organization there, Pinch. No wonder the NYTimes has serious credibility problems.
Can you imagine what he would have gotten if he had done a good job as CEO?
They knew it was going down, and looted it while they could, while there was still some meat on the carcass.
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