The Inbox....

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Speaking of Meredith on their pay cuts, an emailer to FTVLive brings up and interesting question.

That is the topic of today’s Inbox….

Tom Harty, Meredith’s CEO, made $7.3 million in FY 2019, according to the company’s proxy statement filed with the SEC. Here’s the breakdown:

$1 million in salary
$1,039,469 in stock awards
$629,621 in option awards
$1,736,586 in incentives
$2,699,534 in pension and deferred compensation
$199,053 in other compensation

This is very important to note in the context of Meredith’s pay cuts.

Executives will be getting cuts as high as 40%. Is that coming out of Harty's total compensation or just his salary? A pay cut of $400,000 is huge, but when you realize Harty has another $6.3 million coming his way, you realize Meredith’s executives will still be walking away with a lot of money.

Meanwhile, the rank-and-file employees in newsrooms are getting the short end of the stick. Even a 15% cut is huge to someone who’s making — for example — $70,000 a year.

They’re not getting any stock or option awards either.

I hope my former Meredith co-workers will remember that when Harty comes through the local television stations during his yearly visits.