 |
Janet
Robinson, president and chief executive officer of The New York Times
Company,
speaks at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York,
November 30, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
|
(Reuters) -
Janet Robinson, who will step down as chief executive of the New York Times Co
on December 31, will receive an exit package in excess of $15 million,
according to people familiar with the situation.
In addition
to a $4.5 million consulting fee, the Times Co will pay Robinson $10.9 million
in pension benefits that she accrued over 28 years of service, they said.
According
to a regulatory filing, Times Co's policy previously stipulated that Robinson,
61, would not be eligible for full pension benefits until she was 63 and had
been with the company for 30 years. But people familiar with the matter said
the Times Co agreed to pay out the full amount as part of her separation
agreement.
A Times Co
representative declined to give any more details on Robinson's departure beyond
the statement issued last Thursday, and did not make her available for comment.
Taken
together, Robinson is walking away with just under $15 million exclusive of the
value of the stock options she accumulated over her tenure with the company.
The details of her severance agreement, which would also include her base
salary, performance bonus, and stock options, are expected to be disclosed in
the Times Co's 10K regulatory filing in March.
News of
Robinson's severance agreement comes during the same week that a wave of
buyouts hit the newsroom of the flagship New York Times and the company
disclosed that it was in talks to sell 16 regional newspapers to Halifax Media
Holdings. More than a dozen newsroom staffers reportedly took buyouts, among
them well-known bylines including sports writer George Vecsey, metro columnist
Clyde Haberman, and business reporter Diana Henriques.
Against the
backdrop of an 80 percent decline in the Times Co's stock over her seven-year
tenure as CEO, the size of Robinson's exit package prompted some criticism in
the newsroom. Times Co shares are down 25 percent this year alone.
But
Robinson is getting less than half of the $37.1 million Craig Dubow received
from a combination of severance, pension, disability, and stock payments when
he retired as Gannett Inc's CEO in October, after six years at the helm of the
newspaper publisher and amid similarly dismal financial results.
FRICTION
WITH SULZBERGER
While the
Times Co has not given an official reason for Robinson's sudden decision to
retire, people familiar with the matter said it was not related to an impending
financial event such as a big decline in advertising sales or digital
subscriptions or a large quarterly loss.
Some
newsroom staffers believe that Robinson's efforts to "raise her
profile" were interpreted by Arthur Sulzberger Jr, the family scion and
company chairman, as an unwelcome power grab. They say that Robinson pushed for
a larger publicity effort around the business side after seeing the attention
heaped on the newspaper when Jill Abramson took over as editor-in-chief.
Robinson
embarked on an outreach effort that included speaking engagements at recent UBS
and Goldman Sachs media conferences, hosting lunches for investors and analysts
at the company's Lorenzo Piano-designed headquarters, and conducting editorial
meetings with Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg and others.
The aim of
these meetings was to tell the story of how the Times Co's business has
recovered since 2008, highlighting its quick repayment of a $250 million loan
from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, its sale of noncore assets, and its
successful implementation of a digital paywall, among other things.
"She
wanted to convince investors to come back to us; that we had turned the corner
so they should buy the stock again - that was the objective," said one
source.
Though
Robinson and Sulzberger had worked cordially and efficiently together as CEO
and chairman, sources said friction has been building between the two recently
for reasons ranging from their differing management styles to how Wall Street
interpreted their respective roles to Sulzberger wanting a leader with more
digital acumen.
Whether
Robinson's PR efforts represented the breaking point for Sulzberger is unclear,
however.
"Arthur
is the operating head of the company, he makes the final decisions," said
longtime Times Co-watcher Alex Jones, author of "The Trust" about the
company. "Janet wouldn't be out doing anything without his blessing."
(Reporting
By Peter Lauria in New York; additional reporting by Paul Thomasch; Editing by
Tiffany Wu and Matthew Lewis)
(This story
corrects the eighth paragraph to show the $37.1 million payout to Dubow
includes severance, pension, disability, and stock payments)
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