Boston | Ad chief Martin quits for Gannett post

The Boston Globe's chief advertising officer, Senior Vice President Sam Martin (left), is leaving the company to become publisher of the Montgomery Advertiser, a small Alabama newspaper owned by the Gannett Co., which announced the appointment earlier today.

Martin is moving to a newspaper with a considerably smaller readership. The Globe's circulation is about 230,000 daily, and 379,000 on Sunday, according to the latest ABC figures, as of March 31. Montgomery's is just 35,827 daily, and 44,120 on Sunday.

At the Globe, Gannett says, Martin was responsible for the integrated sales of that daily, plus its Boston.com website, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Globe Direct and Metro Boston.

Martin had previously worked for Gannett as senior vice president of marketing at The Cincinnati Enquirer from, 1999-2002, and director of advertising at The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., from 1993-1999.

Ailing Punch Sulzberger misses wife's memorial

A Spokesman-Review story today, about a memorial service for the recently deceased wife of NYT Co. Chairman Emeritus Arthur "Punch" Sulzberger Sr., 84 (left), notes that he was unable to attend Saturday's event at Spokane, Wash., because of unspecified "poor health." His son, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., spoke in is stead.

“When Allison would leave to go to Spokane . . . his voice was gone,” Sulzberger said of his father, who was quiet and subdued in her absence, the Spokesman-Review story says. When she came home, he’d say, “Hello, sweetheart,” the happiness apparent in his voice, his son recalled. “The greatest gift she gave us was that of love,” Sulzberger said, “in her words and in her deeds.”

Cowles, 75, died at her Spokane home on April 25 from pancreatic cancer. She was the matriarch of the family that owns the Spokane paper.

Quiz | Match Sulzberger's 'obscene' salary, layoffs

In a new post today, Vanity Fair magazine promises "fun with capitalism" in a multiple-choice quiz: Match the executive's salary to news about his company’s layoffs. The glossy says: "The lucky champion will win . . . a renewed disgust with this country’s fetishization of avarice!"

Noted: NYT Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is No. 5 on the list.

Related: Gawker says media CEOs paid as if they ran successful companies

[Image: Cover of the current issue featuring World Cup 2010 players]

NYT spotlights big 2009 paydays for media chiefs

Top executives at the country’s largest media companies continued to reel in multimillion-dollar pay packages in 2009, a year of widespread cost-cutting throughout the industry, The New York Times reports this morning. In several cases, the packages even increased from the year before. Among the executives listed: NYT Co. CEO Janet Robinson (left) was paid $4.9 million in 2009, 26% more than the year before, and Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the chairman, made $4.8 million, a 171% increase. Last year, company-wide employment plunged 18%, to 7,665, following layoffs. Over the same period, NYT stock jumped 69%, to $12.36 a share at the end of the year.

Carolinas papers merge news executives' jobs

NYT Co. newspapers in North Carolina and South Carolina are merging some editorial management positions, including sharing an executive editor and a managing editor.

As part of the merger, the Times-News of Hendersonville, N.C., reported yesterday that it eliminated four positions, including that of its executive editor, Bill Moss. The paper said Mike Smith, executive editor of the Herald-Journal of Spartanburg, S.C., will assume responsibility for the Times-News. Also, the sports editor at the Herald-Journal, Burke Noel, will become managing editor for both papers. Noel will be based in Hendersonville.

The communities are about 49 miles apart. (See map, below.)

"These are difficult times for business in general and the newspaper business in particular, but we have shown our long-term commitment to Hendersonville through our investment in this new headquarters," Roger Quinn, chief executive of the Carolinas Group, told the Times-News.


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[Image: today's paper, Newseum]

Urgent: Sulzberger paid nearly $6 million in 2009; Robinson gets $6.3 million, as pay soars over 2008

The New York Times Co. just disclosed annual compensation for top officers last year, and their paychecks soared in comparison to 2008. The pay boosts came during another year of layoffs and other austerity measures.

Chairman Arthur Sulzberger was paid $5.9 million vs. $2.3 million in 2008, according to the just-filed annual proxy report to shareholders. CEO Janet Robinson earned $6.3 million vs. $4.8 million in 2008, the document shows.

Their fattened paychecks came when overall NYT Co. employment fell 18%, to 7,665 workers, as the company struggled to recover from revenue losses as more advertising dollars shifted to online competitors.

Related: Here's the full compensation table for the company's five highest-paid executives

Big paper profits already seen on stock options

[NYT's stock surge today benefited top executives]

A slew of stock options showered on a top executives in late February are already worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, based on today's big jump in NYT Co. shares. NYT stock closed at $11.75 a share moments ago, up 7.4% amid rumors -- later denied -- that the company was targeted for takeover by major investor Carlos Slim of Mexico.

The options awarded by the board of directors allow the executives to buy NYT shares from the company for $11.13 a share -- the "strike price" -- no matter how high the market price goes. They may buy and then sell the shares, known as "exercising" them, in three equal annual installments starting Feb. 18, 2011, newly disclosed company documents show.

The 62-cent difference between this afternoon's closing price and the $11.13 strike price means, for example, that Chairman Arthur Sulzberger's 181,650 options have now jumped in value to a net $112,623 -- in well under two weeks. Ditto for CEO Janet Robinson. See the chart, above, for paper value increases for all eight executives.

[Data: Google Finance]

Winter Haven | Publisher resigns, job eliminated

Driven by cost-cutting in the beleaguered Florida newspaper market, News Chief Publisher Nelson Kirkland (left) resigned, effective Thursday, and his job was eliminated, according to a story in the nearby Ledger of Lakeland, Fla.

His departure from the Winter Haven paper after two years was presented as amicable, although his supervisor -- Ledger Publisher Jerome Ferson -- told the paper: "Rather than accept an important position elsewhere in the company, Nelson Kirkland decided to leave the News Chief at the beginning of the month."

"My departure comes down to a business decision,'' Kirkland, 47, told the Ledger. "I'm very proud of the people I had a chance to work with. I will soon be a free agent, and that opens the door for many possibilities."

Will papers stay separate?
The NYT Co. bought the Chief from Gatehouse Media in March 2008. The Chief and the Ledger are just 18 miles apart (see interactive map, below) -- contributing to fears that the two papers could be combined. Addressing those concerns, the Ledger story said editorial operations will remain separate.

Following Kirkland's resignation, two of the Chief's senior managers will now report to Ledger executives: the managing editor to Ferson, and the advertising manager to the Ledger's advertising director.

Kirkland had been the Ledger's advertising director before being named Chief publisher.

The shake-up comes as Florida newspapers continue struggling with the aftershocks of the mortgage meltdown and the great recession. The Ledger's circulation plunged 11.4% to 47,872 as of Sept. 30 from a year before, the paper says, citing Audit Bureau of Circulations data. Sunday fell 10.6% to 62,317. The Chief's figures were not included in the ABC report.

Across the newspaper industry, companies have slashed costs by eliminating high-paying jobs. The nation's No. 1 publisher, Gannett Co., has retired a number of publishers in recent years, assigning their duties to other executives who then supervise several publications simultaneously.

Related: the Chief's entry in Wikipedia


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[Image: today's Ledger, Newseum]

Old Gray Heads? | Over past decade, age rose

[NYT Co.'s 10 most-senior officers last year]

Unfairly or not, aging industry leaders are accused of being out of touch with future consumers: young people who are abandoning newspapers in favor of Facebook, Twitter and other digital media. In response, you'd think, the NYT Co. and other publishers would add younger executives to the ranks of senior officers.

But, no. A review of the Times Co.'s annual reports over the past 10 years shows the opposite has happened. The average officer's age has actually increased since 2000.

Last year, the average of 10 officers listed was 53.5 years, according to the just-published annual 10-K report. (See chart, above.) In 2000, the average of 15 officers listed was lower -- 50.3, according to that year's report.

In 2000, the youngest officer was Cynthia Augustine, 42, senior vice president for human resources. Last year, it was the officer occupying that same job: Todd McCarty, 44 years old; he was hired in December.

Does age really make a difference? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., 58 years old]

Nearly 224K stock options for Sulzberger, Golden

The company granted another round of stock awards to top officials, according to new filings today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The recipients:

Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (left): 181,650 options on Class A common stock. The strike price is $11.13 a share. The options vest in three equal annual installments beginning Feb. 18, 2011. Sulzberger also received 13,650 units of restricted stock to be paid in cash at the market price on Feb. 18, 2013. (Here's the SEC document.)

Vice Chairman Michael Golden: 42,000 options on Class A shares. The strike price and vesting schedule are the same as Sulzberger's. He also got 4,305 restricted stock units. They are to be paid on the same terms as Sulzberger as well. (Document here.)

The awards disclosed today follow a slew of options and restricted stock units awarded last week to CEO Janet Robinson and five other top executives. Please see that post for a full explanation of how options and RSUs work.

Related: a complete list of the company's SEC filings

NYT Co. awards nearly 350,000 new stock options to CEO Robinson and five other senior executives

[Chart shows executive stock awards disclosed today]

The New York Times Co. has awarded new stock options and other stock-based compensation potentially worth millions of dollars to six of the company's most senior executives, according to regulatory filings today.

The awards made yesterday appear to be the first evidence of annual executive bonuses for 2009, a year when the company's belt-tightening included more layoffs and other cost reductions. Complete details of those bonuses, plus salaries, benefits and other 2009 compensation, are expected when the company files its annual shareholders proxy statement, likely around mid-March. (List of the six highest-compensated executives in 2008.)

The awards disclosed today via U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings came in two forms:

• Stock options. These give recipients the right to buy shares from the company in the future at a fixed price -- known as the strike price -- no matter how high the stock rises. The options disclosed today become the executives' property -- known as vesting -- in three equal annual installments beginning Feb. 18, 2011. The strike price is also the same for each executive: $11.13, the documents show.
• Restricted stock units (RSUs). These are paid in cash based on the market value of NYT Co. shares, and vest on Feb. 18, 2013. Each RSU is equal to one share of common stock. For example, a grant of 1,000 RSUs would be worth $15,000 if the stock was trading for $15 a share.

As expected, CEO Janet Robinson (left) topped the list; she received 181,650 options and 13,650 RSUs, the filing for her awards says. At today's closing price -- $11.02 -- her RSUs would be worth $150,423 cash in February 2013 if shares were trading at the same price.

Todd McCarty, one of the executives on today's list, had already received options and RSUs earlier this month, according to a regulatory filing this week. Those appear to have amounted to a signing bonus for joining the company as its new senior vice president for human resources in December.

The filings came in a series of Forms 4, filed with the SEC. The complete list is in the company's SEC documents section, here.

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New HR chief McCarty granted big stock awards

In a move presumably related to his appointment two months ago, Todd McCarty (left) has been granted 50,000 stock options and 31,625 units of restricted stock, potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, a regulatory filing today shows. McCarty was appointed senior vice president for human relations in mid-December.

The options become fully his property -- or vest -- in three equal annual installments starting Feb. 12, 2011, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The so-called strike price -- the amount he would pay the company to buy the shares -- is $10.53 each. Based on today's closing price, $11.10 a share, those options already have a net paper value of nearly $29,000.

The restricted stock units vest on Feb. 12, 2013, and allow McCarty to receive the cash equivalent of 31,625 shares of Class A common stock based on the market value of those shares as of that date. For example, if the market value were the same as today's closing price on the exercise date, McCarty would be entitled to $351,038 from the company.

Class A common are the shares that most employees and average investors trade. The more powerful Class B shares are mostly owned by members of the Ochs-Sulzberger family, allowing them significant control over the board of directors.

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Boston | Early in term, Mayer gets good marks

In a new story today, the Boston Phoenix writes about prospects for The Boston Globe, with emphasis on Christopher Mayer (left), named publisher last fall. "If the New York Times Co. was going to pick yet another publisher," a long-time Globe veteran tells the alternative weekly, "they finally found someone who understands both the Globe and the local community. Chris worked his way up — he's been at the Globe 22 years — so he knows everybody, and he's very well liked and respected. The last two publishers parachuted in; nobody knew who the hell they were. With Mayer, there's no learning curve — and there's no issue of, 'How do we get the employees behind this guy?'"

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In posthumous memoir, Boyd said settling scores

The late New York Times managing editor, Gerald Boyd, is especially vengeful in his attack on current culture editor Jon Landman, who emerged from the Jayson Blair scandal as a hero.

Boyd (left), whose book -- My Times in Black and White -- is being published posthumously (he died three years ago) has none of that, according to the New York Observer. "In the newsroom,'' Boyd writes, "Landman, as author of the 'stop Jayson from writing' memo, was a hero. He was benefiting from revisionist history that I had seen the note and ignored it. No one disputed the falsehood, especially not Landman."

Boyd accuses Landman of being "a bully-smug, aggressive, a master of office politics-and one of the primary enemies that celebrated his ouster. According to Boyd, Landman was a man of no 'decency and integrity,''' the Observer says.

Hmmmm. Accusing someone of being a master of office politics might be a terrible insult -- or a high compliment, depending on whether you share the popular view that the Times newsroom is full of sharp-elbowed Type-A personalities.

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Boston | Publisher Mayer discloses stock holdings

Boston Globe Publisher Christopher Mayer has for the first time disclosed his stockholdings in the New York Times Co., in an initial filing yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. I believe he made this filing because his appointment as chief executive of the Globe last fall meant he had become an officer of the Times parent company.

Mayer, 47 (left), directly owns 6,052 shares in the form of so-called restricted stock units, the Form 3 filing shows; he takes full ownership -- or "vesting" -- in stages through February 2011.

The document also shows that he holds options on 60,819 shares. Much of that is worthless right now, as it appears the exercise price -- the amount he'd pay if he exercised his right to buy the shares -- is $23.83 on all but 9,400 shares, as I read the filing. That's a price well above the stock's closing price of $14.11 on Friday. Unless and until shares trade well into the range of $30 and up, Mayer is unlikely to take advantage of any of these options, it appears. Still, he has until as long as February 2019 to exercise some of these options, the filing shows.

Mayer was promoted to publisher and head of the Times Co.'s New England Media Group in October.

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In Graham vs. Sulzberger, Grahams 'stinking rich'

"Unlike the Sulzbergers of The New York Times, who, with their company's dividend cut to nothing, may have to sell their paper to eat."

-- Michael Wolff, in his "Post Modern'' article in Vanity Fair about The Washington Post under Publisher Katharine Weymouth, October 2009.

Boston | In shuffle, change without a difference?

The Boston Globe's new incoming publisher, Christopher Mayer (left), has announced a series of changes in the paper's top management for departments including advertising, news, finance and human resources. But except for HR, I can't see how these new titles, reported today in this Globe story, reflect anything more than that: new titles. The story doesn't suggest any big functional changes in job descriptions.

Mayer succeeds the retiring Steven Ainsley on Jan. 1. Ainsley who has been the paper's top executive for the past three, tumultuous years. At the time the publisher change was announced, Oct. 29, the Globe noted: "Mayer has been with the Globe since 1984 and is the first insider the Times Co. has named publisher since buying the newspaper from the Taylor family in 1993. The Times Co. fired Benjamin Taylor in 1999 and installed one of its own executives, Richard Gilman, as publisher. Ainsley, who has run numerous regional papers for the Times Co., succeeded Gilman in September 2006."

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[Photo: Globe]

NYTCo. names outsider McCarty as new HR chief

Reader's Digest Association executive Todd McCarty (left) has been appointed senior vice president, human resources -- the company's top personnel job, effective Dec. 31, the company announced today. McCarty, 43, will be responsible for all human resources functions, including compensation and benefits, diversity programs, performance management, staff development and succession planning, the NYTCo.'s statement says. He will report to CEO Janet Robinson.

Most frustrating: the company doesn't say who McCarty is succeeding. The New York Times reported the change, but also didn't disclose his predecessor. Currently, Desiree Dancy holds the title of chief diversity officer and vice president, corporate human resources. But that's not the same position McCarty is assuming.

Summarizing his background, the statement says McCarty has been senior vice president, global human resources for The Reader's Digest Association, which he joined in 2008. From 2005 to 2008 McCarty was senior vice president, human resources with drug store chain Rite Aid Corp. From 2000 to 2005 he served as senior vice president, North American human resources for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and from 1992 to 2000 he held various positions with Frito-Lay Co., a division of PepsiCo. McCarty started his career with Quaker Oats in 1989. He is also currently a director of department store chain Bon-Ton Stores.

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