Fairfax executive justifies $2.4m pay rise saying they back themselves to hit targets
One of four Fairfax executives who shared a $2.4m remuneration increase in the last financial year has justified the move by saying the “management was prepared to back itself to achieve set targets – something the journalists are refusing to do”, after staff were offered a pay freeze.
Today’s full-year financial report showed four execs – CEO Greg Hywood; Allen Williams, MD of the Australian publishing media division, chief financial officer David Housego; and general counsel Gail Hambly – shared the extra remuneration with nearly $2m coming in the form of preference shares given to them for hitting targets.
However, in an email accidentally forwarded to journalists from a Fairfax PR consultant, Hambly said there had been no “base” pay rise for the executive saying: “The increases are all incentive based”. The company today reported a full-year profit of $224m, based on the sale of digital assets, but showed steep declines in print revenues with only marginal gains in digital.
This afternoon MEAA union members at Fairfax were due to hold a stop work meeting to discuss a pay freeze offered to them by management, with Williams telling staff when they made the proposal “the best people should be paid more”. Hambly’s comments came in an internal email chain via Fairfax’s PR consultant Sue Cato, who accidentally forwarded it to journalists when submitting a response on behalf of the company. The remuneration figure today showed Hambly herself got an extra $300,000 for a total remuneration package of $1.063m this year. Her full response to Cato read:
“Of course the aggressive response is that the increases are all incentive based- ie the management was prepared to back itself to achieve set targets- something the journalists are refusing to do. There were NO base pay increases.”
Hywood was granted an extra $900,000, Housego $841,000. Williams, who was only elevated to a “key management personnel” position last April, received a total remuneration package of $1.196m. Earlier the MEAA told Mumbrella the pool shared by the four execs was more than that offered to 600 staff in metropolitan news rooms.
That’s not a good look
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Hambly is in la la land. The salaries at fairfax are now ridiculous for a business in that condition and with that peformance. Her own salary is a very long way from the market for that job (which is what exactly)?
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I would imagine the first rule of crisis management would be to check what you’re emailing journos before doing so.
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Cato is apparently a crisis management consultant who has to create her own demand?
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Oh, what a novel idea! First you tell the talent you love them and their work is central to our democracy. But then you find you have to justify turning their jobs to shit while taking big gobs of money from a failing business. So, of course, you say you are the one taking the risk! Pure genius Gail. Sure it’s aggressive, but you are of course on the side of the angels.
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I get out my pencil. Gail gets $700k. What does Gail do? Apparently she is corporate counsel. So she advises the board. Ok, She is Corbett’s mandarin. $700k is a lot. (Correct me folks, but I think the typical in-house counsel for this sort of company is in the $350k to $500 league?) But she gets $1 milllion. Hmmm.
I look at Hywood. Hmmm. Revenues going backwards big time. Heavily reliant on consultants. Salary for this scale of business maybe $800k. Bonus for good result maybe $800k. Absent revenue growth he might get a bonus for being abused a lot. But $2.4 million!!!!
Roger: you need to step down from the pulpit. Shareholders are not drinking the cool-aid.
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I see Gail Hambly is on the board of Belvoir Theatre. Explains it all!
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annoying how Cato often seems to become the news, rather than managing it.
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Fuck me.
As a media trader/buyer, this is great leverage.
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Obviously they know the ship is sinking [Edited for legal reasons under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
A shame really, the Sydney Morning Herald used to be the pinnacle of journalism in this country and dare I say it, level with some of the better US and UK papers.
It’s gone to the dogs now, and the Hyenas are running it.
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Will Cato survive this? It’s a hell of a clanger.
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you have to think of the sales soldiers fighting the Fairfax battle at Ground Zero…. day in, day out slugging to win the briefs with minimal reward. I know a few that work in Sales there and most of them have NOT had a payrise on their $70K salary for 2 years, and their commission incentives have been slashed to half of what they used to earn.
What a slap in the face that 4 big fat cats think their reduction in base salary coupled with the additional remuneration in the guise of performance shares is doing their bit.
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Shocking, when you realise that over half of the profits $224m for the year come from Fairfax Of The Future. That means these guys pat themselves on the back for decimating staff here and in NZ and setting up Bain&Co-style sweatshops staffed by voiceless bullied workers fearing they’re axed next. You’re beaudies, Greg and Alan. Enjoy those millions, you’re so clever you deserve to be rich!
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Shocking, when you realise that over half of the $224m profits for the year come from Fairfax Of The Future. That means these guys pat themselves on the back for decimating staff here and in NZ and setting up Bain&Co-style sweatshops staffed by voiceless bullied workers fearing they’re axed next. You’re beaudies, Greg and Alan. Enjoy those millions, you’re so clever you deserve to be rich!
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