YAHOO: The company that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News hosted a $233,000 trip to Rome for about 70 people a year before filing for bankruptcy protection. The six-day Philadelphia Newspapers trip was an incentive for advertising managers and major advertisers, Executive Vice President Richard Thayer told a U.S. bankruptcy trustee Thursday. The three top executives — Chief Executive Brian Tierney, Thayer and Executive Vice President Mark Frisby — and their wives also attended, he said. Philadelphia Newspapers LLC filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2009, citing $395 million in debt. Recent court filings also show that Tierney collected $1.175 million in salary and bonuses last year, somewhat higher than previously disclosed. Tierney’s compensation included $650,000 in salary, a $350,000 bonus for 2008, a $175,000 bonus for 2007 and $81,000 in transportation costs. In questioning from a creditor’s lawyer, Thayer defended his own 2008 bonus of $150,000, a sum that came atop his $420,000 salary and $60,000 cash housing allowance. He called it appropriate for a financially troubled company to boost executives’ pay because there is more work to do and a need for incentives to keep them onboard. “The bonuses aren’t related to whether the company makes money or not ,” said Thayer, who called his compensation package “a very low number” for the work he does. Amid layoffs and the company’s worsening financial outlook, editorial and other unionized employees late last year agreed to give up their scheduled raises of about $25 per week. MORE
PREVIOUSLY: Bankrupt Phila. Newspapers Denies That Paying Out $1.4 Million In Exec. Bonuses Was Mismanagement
PREVIOUSLY: HECKUVA JOB, TIERNEY — Inky/DN Big Wigs Were Paid $650,000 In Bonuses As Papers Went Bankrupt
PREVIOUSLY: Inquirer/Daily News Go Bankrupt
SHAME SHIT, DIFFERENT ASSHOLE: Earlier today WHYY laid off 16 full-time employees and one part-timer throughout the public radio and television stations. […] Several WHYY employees today questioned whether the salary of CEO Bill Marrazzo would be cut. His compensation of more than $400,000 plus over $300,000 in expenses and benefits has long been a bone of contention among ‘HYY empoyees. MORE
RELATED: “While very difficult on a personal level,” Marrazzo wrote, the layoffs were necessary to “keep our fiscal house in order.” Marrazzo’s compensation, including $280,000 in deferred compensation he is scheduled to get this year if he meets performance goals, totaled $740,090 for the year ending June 30, 2007, the most recent tax filing to be made public – or 62 percent of the amount to be saved by the 17 layoffs. Staffers reported that at the meeting, Danny Miller, executive producer of Fresh Air, WHYY-FM’s flagship program, asked Marrazzo if executive salary cuts were considered as a way to save jobs and that Miller himself volunteered to take a cut if it could save staff. Marrazzo said that was not an option, people at the meeting said. The CEO told The Inquirer in February that a cut in his compensation would be on the table if the station had economic troubles. MORE