Associated Newspapers editor-in-chief Paul Dacre cemented his position as the UK’s top paid national newspaper editor by taking home a total of £2.8m for the year to the start of October.
Dacre was rewarded with a 70 per cent pay increase as Associated’s Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday titles achieved record profits and new highs in terms of market share over the previous year.
The total of £2.8m comes from fees and salary of £1.6m; £127,000 in cash allowances; £25,000 benefits in kind and a £1m bonus paid in cash and shares.
In addition to his pay, Dacre received a further £973,000 in January when Associated “bought out” the allowance it paid him for central London accommodation after he took ownership of a property.
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Dacre, 62, has been editor of the Daily Mail since 1992 and editor in chief of Associated Newspapers since 1998. The report also reveals that Dacre has decided to take his pension – as he now qualifies for it. That payment does not figure in his published remuneration.
In the 2009/2010 financial year Associated Newspapers contributed 43 per cent of parent company Daily Mail and General Trust‘s total revenue of £1.98bn.
Associated’s £850m revenue total was slightly down year on year by £26m, partly due to the cost of closing its free daily London Lite in November 2009 and the sale of 75 per cent of the London Evening Standard to Alexander Lebedev in January 2009.
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However, operating profit for Associated nearly tripled year on year to £95m in the year to October.
Underlying circulation revenue for Associated (excluding the effect of sell-offs) was down two per cent to £351m, but ad revenue was up seven per cent to £347m.
This was driven in particular by a strong performance at national free daily Metro, which saw ad sales grow 21 per cent year on year.
Although Mail Online is now the UK’s most popular national newspaper website, it only contributed £12m in revenue (up 54 per cent year on year).
The DMGT annual report reveals that the Daily Mail out-performed the daily newspaper market, so that despite sales for the year dropping two per cent to 2.1m – it grew market share to a record 21 per cent.
Similarly, the Mail on Sunday dropped four per cent to 1.99m, but grew market share to 19 per cent, which DMGT said was also a new high for the title.
Chairman and controlling shareholder of DMGT Lord Rothermere was paid £1.3m in the year to October 2010.
He said in the annual report: “We’ve emerged from an economic recession in the UK, a world financial crisis, the most profound and continuing changes in the media industry, and your company is in very good health.”
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