President Trump has had plenty of harsh words for the media, but don’t weep for media honchos: They’re doing just fine in the Trump era.
Top executives at major media companies averaged more than $25 million in total compensation in 2017, according to disclosures the companies filed recently with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Leading the way was Les Moonves, the chairman and CEO of CBS who made $69.3 million in 2017—or 595 times the amount of the typical CBS worker. Other TV executives made out well, too, including CEOs of the parent companies of ABC ($36.3 million), Fox ($35 million), and NBC ($32.5 million).
Newspaper CEOs made less than their TV counterparts, as most of the newspaper industry continues to struggle with threats from new media. Yet top execs at Gannett, the New York Times, and McClatchy received raises in 2017.
All publicly traded companies must file annual reports with the SEC listing the pay of top executives and other financial information.
Here are the top U.S. media companies, ranked by their top executives’ 2017 pay:
1. Les Moonves, CBS, $69.3 million
Owns: CBS, Showtime, Simon & Schuster, 29 local TV stations
Moonves total compensation actually fell by about $200,000 in 2017. But he did OK considering his bonus shrank to $20 million from $32 million the year before. His compensation was 595 times that of the typical CBS worker, who made $117,000, the company said. Revenues were up and earnings fell.
2. David Zaslav, Discovery, $42.2 million
Owns: Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet
Revenue climbed 6 percent in 2017, but the company lost money on the year. That didn’t stop Zaslav from getting a 14 percent pay raise over 2016, thanks to a big increase in stock options. The company also disclosed that its employees’ median pay was $81,000, which means the ratio of CEO pay to that of a typical worker is 522-to-1.
3. Bob Iger, Disney, $36.3 million
Owns: ABC, ESPN, Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm
The $2.5 million salary of CEO Bob Iger stayed the same in 2017, but his bonus dropped by $5 million to just $15 million. That caused his overall compensation to fall to $36.3 million for 2017, or 17 percent less than the year before. Disney revenue and profits fell slightly in 2017.
4. Bryan Roberts, Comcast, $32.5 million
Owns: NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, E!, Telemundo
Profits more than doubled at Comcast in 2017, while CEO Bryan Roberts’ compensation dropped to $32.5 million, down about 1 percent, as the amount of his bonus slipped. The company said Roberts earned 458 times the pay of the average Comcast employee.
5. Rupert Murdoch, 21st Century Fox, $29.3 million
Owns: Fox News, FX, local TV stations
Rupert Murdoch’s overall compensation fell to $29.3 million in fiscal 2017, down from $34.6 million in 2016, while the company’s revenue and profits rose in the 12 months ending June 30, 2017. (Murdoch is also CEO of News Corp.; see below.)
6. Robert Bakish, Viacom, $20.3 million
Owns: Comedy Central, Paramount, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, VH1
In his first year as CEO of Viacom, Robert Bakish made $20.3 million, about half of which came from stock awards and options. That’s good money, but it pales in comparison to the $93 million the company’s former CEO made in 2016, when it ousted him and paid him a healthy $58 million in severance. Revenues and profits rose in fiscal 2017.
7. Robert Dickey, Gannett, $8.7 million
Owns: USA Today, Arizona Republic, Detroit Free Press and seven other papers
Revenues inched up but profits plunged at the newspaper chain in 2017. CEO Robert Dickey took home $8.7 million in total compensation in 2017—27 percent more than the previous year. The chain shed about 1,800 U.S. workers in 2017, or more than 10 percent of its workforce.
8. Rupert Murdoch, News Corp., $5.7 million
Owns: Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Fox, HarperCollins
Revenue slipped and News Corp. flipped to a loss for the year. Still, Rupert Murdoch’s total compensation inched up to $5.7 million in the company’s fiscal 2017, which encompassed only the first half of last calendar year. In 2016, he took home $5.3 million from News Corp. (He is also of 21st Century Fox, above.)
9. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., New York Times, $5.6 million
Owns: New York Times
Revenues surged, as the paper has added digital subscribers, but profits dropped in 2017, as the company had to record a huge accounting expense related to Republican tax cuts. While the paper paid its fair share, it also rewarded publisher Arthur Sulzberger handsomely with a 9 percent raise in 2017, to $5.6 million in total compensation. Sulzberger retired at the end of 2017 and handed publishing duties to his son, A.G. Sulzberger, though the older Sulzberger remains as company.
10. Craig Forman, McClatchy, $2.4 million
Owns: 30 papers, including Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, Sacramento Bee.
New CEO Craig Forman made $2.4 million in total compensation in 2017, even as the newspaper chain’s revenue continued to shrink and it lost $332 million. The previous CEO, Patrick Talamantes, made $1.6 million in 2016. In 2017, revenues fell almost 10 percent and the company’s loss widened.
11. Justin Dearborn, Tronc, $757,000
Owns: 19 papers, including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, NY Daily News
Here’s one executive who’s actually felt some pain in the wallet. Tronc, under fire from unions at the Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun, slashed the pay of CEO Justin Dearborn in 2017, to $757,000 from $8.1 million. Revenues and income declined in 2017.
(Note: CNN parent Time Warner had not filed a 2017 disclosure form as of Tuesday. In 2016, Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes made $32.6 million.)
