News Corp.
Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of the media conglomerate News Corp., received compensation valued at $30.1 million in the fiscal year ended June 30 - an increase of 24% from a year ago - according to an analysis of a regulatory filing.
Murdoch, 77, received a base salary of $8.1 million, as he did the year before, according to the Tuesday filing, and he did not receive a cash bonus.
The bulk of his remuneration came from a nonstock incentive plan tied to the company’s per-share earnings performance. That bonus was $17.5 million, up 11% from the $15.8 million he got in fiscal 2007.
News Corp (NWS, Fortune 500).’s 2008 net income rose 57% to $5.39 billion, or $1.81 per share, on strength in its cable networks and film business.
The company’s shares fell 54% in the same period, as investors soured on media companies affected by the shift in ad spending to online from traditional media sources.
Murdoch also received $403,169 in perquisites - 13% more than in 2007 -primarily for personal use of the company’s jet and car services.
News Corp. President Peter Chernin’s compensation grew 7% to $29.3 million, primarily because he received more stock awards than a year ago.
Chernin’s base salary held steady at $8.1 million, and his bonus linked to the company’s per-share earnings rose 8% to $11.3 million payday advance. The company awarded him stock options it valued at $9.5 million, up 12% from a year ago. He also received $221,947 in above-market returns on deferred compensation.
The figures were disclosed in the company’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
News Corp. owns media businesses worldwide, including Twentieth Century Fox, the Fox broadcast network and Fox News Channel in the United States, newspapers in the United Kingdom and Australia, satellite TV broadcasters and the online social networking site MySpace. The company acquired Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, during the last fiscal year.
The Associated Press calculations of total pay include executives’ salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.
The calculations don’t include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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