Lee Enterprises, publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and owner of a bunch of small U.S. daily newspapers, is learning the public relations benefits of making its executives do without.
The Davenport, Iowa-based Lee released its annual proxy filing with the U.S. government on Monday, in advance of its annual meeting. I was expecting to see the usual details buried deep within about the pay raises, bonuses and other monetary rewards that executives tend to earn even when times turn tough.
I was wrong. Here is what I found instead (the following are “named executive officers” or “NEOs,” including Chief Executive Mary Junck:
We approved the following salary adjustments for the NEOs for 2008, which became effective as of October 1, 2007:
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Ms. Junck – Increase of 3.0%, to $850,000;
Mr. Schmidt – Increase of 3.7%, to $482,000;
Mr. Veon – Increase of 3.1%, to $361,000;
Mr. Mowbray – Increase of 3.1% to $335,000; and
Mr. Kuraitis – Increase of 3.1% to $268,000.
For 2009, we have frozen NEO salaries at the levels noted above, due to difficult economic conditions affecting the Company, the publishing industry and the overall economy.
