Former NYT CEO paid $23.7M exit package; company netted $3M over the past 4 years


Outgoing New York Times CEO Janet Robinson received an exit package worth $23.7 million after presiding over an eight year tenure that saw the company's share price fall by 80 percent. The company's net earnings over the past four years were $3 million. In addition to her exit package, Robinson earned a $1 million annual salary. Edmund Lee for Bloomberg News:

Robinson gets pension and supplemental retirement income valued at $11.4 million, performance awards of $5.39 million, restricted stock units worth $1.07 million and stock options worth $694,164, according to the company's proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. She will also earn $4.5 million in consulting fees for this year.

Robinson's exit, which costs Times Co. more than the company earned in the past four years, marks an end to a period during which the publisher's sales and earnings slumped amid intensifying online competition. Times Co. (NYT) stock plunged more than 80 percent during Robinson's tenure as CEO, which began in December 2004.

The departure of Robinson, 61, also leaves a leadership vacuum at Times Co., publisher of the namesake newspaper. The company, based in New York, faces falling print-advertising revenue, profit squeezed by pension costs, and pressure from members of the Ochs-Sulzberger family to restore a dividend once worth more than $20 million annually.

New York Times CEO Robinson's Exit Compensation Package Tops $23 Million [Bloomberg News via Tech Dirt]

(Image: The New York Times building (new style), a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from scobleizer's photostream)