CHICAGO - MURDOCH'S TAKE-HOME CHECK TAKES A HIT

MURDOCH'S TAKE-HOME CHECK TAKES A HIT

Even Rupert Murdoch is feeling the economic pinch. The Associated Press reported Thursday, after a review of News Corp's latest regulatory filings, that Murdoch's total compensation dropped 40 percent to $18 million from $30 million. Murdoch's salary, it noted remained unchanged at $8.1 million, but his performance-based incentive pay fell 69 percent to $5.4 million from $17.5 million a year ago. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Murdoch has been meeting with major publishers across the country about forming a consortium that would charge for news distributed online. The Times said that Murdoch has called on the New York Times Co., Washington Post Co., Hearst Corp. and Tribune Co., which publishes the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times . The Times article did not indicate whether the company's TV news operations were made a part of the discussions. Alan D. Mutter, a former newspaper journalist who now presides over the blog Newsosaur, told the Times "The reality is that unless a lot of people who produce news act in unison to start charging for content, then individually they will fail."

21/08/202009