Like everyone else, media moguls did some belt-tightening in the recession era.
Nearly every one of the top entertainment chiefs consented to lightening their wallets in 2009, a year when the economy struggled to recover from a terrifying nosedive and media companies laid off hundreds of employees.
A Wrap investigation into public records found:
* At $19.9 million, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch took a 28 percent cut in his total compensation package from $27.5 million in 2009, based on the company's annual SEC filings.
* Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, took smaller 17 and 12 percent cuts -- though they still managed to rake in $21.6 million and $32 million respectively, according to public records.
* Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman cut his earnings by 26 percent -- but still pulled in upwards of $10 million. And that company's Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone shaved his total compensation by a million dollars -- to $5.2 million.
(See also: Media mogul salaries in 2008.)
But, people -- save your tears. Even after pulling in the reins, salaries in most of Hollywood's executive suites remained safely ensconced in the seven- to eight-figure range.
And their take-home pay is miles ahead of the New Media giants at Google and Amazon.
Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes actually helped himself to a pay bump. His base salary, long-term incentives and annual bonus jumped from $19 million to $22 million -- an increase of 15 percent.
That's probably because earnings for Time Warner have improved now that the vast media empire has finally unloaded the profit-killing AOL.
The company posted a profit of $627 million for the most recent quarter reported, compared with a loss of $16 billion in the same period last year.
It was also helped by a record-shattering year at the box office and a gradual uptick in advertising revenues.
But Time Warner wasn't alone in seeing its earnings recover from last year's lows.
News Corp. reported a profit of $254 million for its most recent quarter compared with a $6.4 billion loss in the same period a year ago.
Over at Viacom, the company recently posted a quarterly profit of $463 million, or 76 cents a share, from $401 million, or 65 cents a share, a year earlier. That was mostly due to a series of cost-cutting measures, as the company's overall revenue actually declined by 2.7 percent.
Still, media moguls' multi-million-dollar salaries have to smart in a period when almost every one of them presided over mass layoffs.
Warner slashed 10 percent of its global workforce last January.
Disney killed 1,900 positions last spring, and studio chief Rich Ross has led an aggressive restructuring that's opened the exit door for many in the marketing and distribution departments.
