Chernin the highest paid at News Corp

By Aline van Duyn in New York

Updated: 6:41 a.m. ET Sept. 7, 2007

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, is widely regarded as the world's most influential media executive but he is not the highest paid employee in the global media group he founded, in spite of receiving $32m in compensation.

Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer, received higher total compensation than Mr Murdoch in the 2007 fiscal year, notching up salary, stock awards, pension benefits and other compensation worth $34m, according to regulatory filings released on Thursday.

The compensation levels – reported in this way with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the first time – highlight Mr Chernin's key role within News Corp, although he was not one of the executives driving the recent fight to acquire Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

Mr Chernin would take over as chief executive if Mr Murdoch was unable to continue in his role, although in the longer term Mr Murdoch has made clear he hopes one of his children will run News Corp. It agreed in August to buy Dow Jones for just over $5bn, completing the 76-year-old Mr Murdoch's long-held ambition to acquire a foothold in the business information market. The deal is expected to close in about two months' time.

Roger Ailes, chairman and chief executive officer of Fox News Channel and the executive who is spearheading the planned Fox Business Network, received compensation of $11m in the 2007 fiscal year.

The Fox Business Network is scheduled to air on October 15 and the acquisition of Dow Jones is expected to be used to boost the new network, a rival to business channel CNBC.

Mr Murdoch and Mr Chernin were paid the same basic salary of $8.1m.

Mr Murdoch's base pay was nearly doubled from the previous year to match that of Mr Chernin.

Mr Murdoch also received a cash bonus of close to $16m while Mr Chernin received a large part of his bonus in stock awards.

The News Corp board's compensation committee said that, as the company's largest stockholder, Mr Murdoch's interests were "already significantly aligned with those of our stockholders".

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