Mail’s editor shares DMGT success salary of more than £1.16m

Daily Mail
editor Paul Dacre reaped the benefits of increased profits at the Daily
Mail & General Trust as his pay rose to more than £1million for the
first time in 2004.

The company’s annual report confirmed DMGT’s
adjusted pre-tax profit was up 27 per cent to £234million (compared to
£174.4million in 2003) on turnover of £2.1billion (£1.9billion in 2003).

Dacre,
56, confirmed his position as the best-paid editor in Fleet Street with
total pay of £1,162,000 (up from £885,000) which included £200,000
profit share/bonus and £77,000 for benefits, including a home in London.

Dacre
is also revealed to be on a rolling two-year contract of the type which
enabled former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan to secure a £1.7million
pay-off after claiming unfair dismissal against Trinity Mirror last
year.

His pension pot (non contributory) is currently worth £7.6
million, which means he is likely to get a pension on retirement of
£495,000 a year.

Dacre has been with the company since 1979,
editor of the Daily Mail since 1992 and editor-in-chief of Associated
Newspapers since 1998.

The only board members paid more in 2003
were chief executive Charles Sinclair (£1,272,000) and Padraic Fallon,
chairman of magazine and exhibitions subsidiary Euromoney Institutional
Investor (£1,408,000). Fallon’s pay mainly reflects a 6.49 per cent
share of pre-tax profits earned at Euromoney.

The Associated
Newspapers division, which includes the Mail titles, Evening Standard
and Metro , reported adjusted operating profit of £90million on
turnover of £890million.

Although the Evening Standard ‘s
circulation dropped 6.6 per cent to 385,000 in 2004, DMGT claimed cost
cutting and increased advertising revenue had led to a “dramatic
improvement” in its overall financial performance for the year. The
Northcliffe Newspapers division, which includes 20 regional daily
papers and 24 weeklies, reported adjusted operating profit of
£101million on turnover of £519million.

Despite declining sales
for the morning and evening titles, which were down 1.9 per cent and
2.5 per cent respectively, price rises helped boost overall newspaper
sales revenue by 1.5 per cent.

Exhibitions and magazine business
Euromoney Institutional Investor reported adjusted operating profit of
£31million on turnover of £175million.

DMG Broadcasting, which mainly comprises Teletext, reported adjusted operating profit of £15.6million on turnover of £75million.

DMGT
also made £3.8million adjusted operating profit from its Australian
radio stations, £26million from the DMG World Media exhibitions
business and £37million from the DMG Information business-to-business
information division.

SALARIES

What other people earn:

Jane Kelly Former Daily Mail writer: £65,000

Helen Boaden Former BBC head of news: £292,000

Tony Blair Prime Minister: £175,000

Alan Rusbridger Guardian editor : £272,00