At the Miami Herald, staffers are facing two weeks of unpaid furloughs this year and a hiring freeze has left key jobs unfilled for months. The paper's parent company, McClatchy, saw revenues drop 8 percent last year while advertising plummeted by 9 percent. So news that McClatchy has handsomely rewarded its top bosses with extra payouts and stock should piss a lot of folks off at One Herald Plaza.
Take Anders Gyllenhaal, the Herald's former executive editor who became a McClatchy vice president in 2010 after overseeing hundreds of layoffs. He went home with $56,000 in "incentive compensation" last year on top of his $375,000 salary, according to new filings obtained by Riptide. Along with stock awards and "other compensation," he nearly made $1.3 million last year. That's like 45 cub reporters' salaries!
Gyllenhaal's compensation is listed in an SEC filing McClatchy submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The paperwork also lists the end-of-the-year tallies for several other top execs.
Peter Tira, a McClatchy spokesperson, points out that technically none of the top bosses earned bonuses last year. They did, however, bank nicely in "non-equity incentive plan compensation," which -- as far as we can figure -- is essentially a performance-based bonus.
Robert Weil, VP of operations, earned a $98,350 boost on top of his $546,000 salary; Karole Morgan-Prager, the firm's senior counsel, cashed in $64,500 atop her $430,000 salary; and Patrick Talamantes got $79,064 on his $494,150 salary.
CEO Gary Pruitt (who recently announced he's leaving to head the AP) topped charts with $4.3 million in total compensation, including a $304,000 "incentive plan compensation" boost.
Despite their paydays, the brass can hardly claim rousing success. Along with declining revenues and chain-wide layoffs, McClatchy's stock, which was valued at $34 per share when Gyllenhaal joined the Herald in 2007, has falled by 92 percent to $2.75 a share. Shareholders, to use the technical terminology, have been royally fucked.
Gyllenhaal, a former investigative reporter and Broward County editor, oversaw some of the deepest layoffs in Miami Herald history as executive editor before leaving in 2010.
Riptide emailed him about his bonus, but we haven't heard back.
Update: Gyllenhaal emailed us this statement:
Decisions on executive bonuses at McClatchy are made by a committee of the board of directors. I understand they try to balance everything from the company's progress, to what's happening among our competitors, to what the advice is from outside compensation consultants. There have years recently with no bonuses and some with partial bonuses as they weigh all of this.Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.
