Robert Thomson could earn as much as $4 million to oversee News Corp.'s new publishing company, public filings reveal.
If News Corp. splits itself into two separate companies, as it plans to do, Chairman Rupert Murdoch will also get a bump in salary. The Securities and Exchange documents do not indicate what his total compensation package will look like after the media giant is demerged, but it does say that as he will be serving the same role in two different companies, his salary will "increase modestly."
Murdoch made over $30 million in total compensation during the last fiscal year.
Thomson will face fierce headwinds when it comes to pushing the newspaper and book publishing divisions back into profitability. The proxy statement reveals that News Corp.'s publishing assets lost over $2 billion in the fiscal year ending in June; it had booked a profit of $678 million the previous year. Revenue for the period was $8.6 billion.
The fiscal picture is still murky. For its most recent quarter, News Corp.'s publishing division lost $92 million on $2.1 billion in revenue. It had made a profit of $38 million in the same period last year.
In June, News Corp. announced it would split into two companies — one for its publishing assets, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and HarperCollins, the other for its film and television businesses, including 20th Century Fox studio and Fox News cable channel. The publishing company will be named News Corp., while the film and television business will be christened Fox Group.
Earlier this month, Thomson was named head of the new publishing company after serving as Dow Jones editor-in-chief and Wall Street Journal managing editor. In his new role, Thomson's compensation package would include a base salary of $2 million and a performance-based annual bonus of up to $2 million.
News Corp.'s proposed split is still subject to regulatory approval.
