GMG regional execs will not follow McCall in making pay changes public

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Unlike Guardian Media Group chief executive Carolyn McCall, who publicly announced her bonus refusal last week , details of personal bonuses taken by GMG Regional management will not be disclosed until the summer.

Last week it was announced that the group's two most senior executives Carolyn McCall and Alan Rusbridger would 'break with convention' and tell the union about their payment decisions, 'in light of

comments made by the National Union of Journalists

' a GMG spokesperson later told Journalism.co.uk.

But GMG Regional Media management, who may take personal bonuses, around 30 per cent of their original bonus package, will not be made public before the publisher's annual report is released. MediaGuardian reported last week that editor-in-chief of Guardian News & Media, Alan Rusbridger - who is not part of the GMG bonus scheme - would take a 10 per cent cut, and chief executive of GMG, Carolyn McCall, would not receive her bonus. As announced in February , bonuses for financial achievement have been suspended for the last financial year (2008/9) and all bonuses - including those for personal performance - have been suspended for 2009/10.

GMG's remuneration committee, made up of independent directors and the chair of the Scott Trust, however, decided that bonuses based on the achievement of personal objectives could be paid, which for GMG board directors is typically 30 per cent of their overall bonus.

"For all other directors and managers eligible for bonuses based on achievement of personal objectives for 08/09 (including members of the GMG Regional Media management team), this is a private, individual matter," the GMG spokesperson told Journalism.co.uk, in response to claims that regional executives would still receive bonuses despite job cuts at the regional titles.

GMG regional chapels across the NUJ last week took out a full-page advertisement in the Guardian newspaper , highlighting 'devastating staff cuts to service the ongoing expansion of the Guardian - which is losing many millions but still paying executive bonuses'.

Manchester Evening News mother-of-chapel, Judy Gordon, told Journalism.co.uk she believed the extent of cuts at the group's regional titles was unnecessary.

"The bosses are addressing a crisis by continually 'talking down the product,'" she said, quoting GMG Regional chief executive, Mark Dodson, from a piece that appeared on MediaGuardian.co.uk last Friday .

In the article Dodson said the Manchester Evening News would 'look fundamentally different from the way it does now' in 10 years time: "It'll be a different kind of product: it could be totally free, or part-paid and part-free; it could be two days a week, or three days a week, or weekly."

"They [newspaper companies] are using the undoubted effects of the recession and changes in advertising markets as an excuse to scythe through staff numbers, ready to reposition themselves for a new future, run on similar principles to the past but based on leaner models and in many cases outrageous profit margins," said Gordon.

"They say the model is broken and it is undoubtedly badly damaged, but it's vital that the journalists who actually know what people want to read, view, watch, or hear are involved in the formation of any new models.

"Journalists are not just some minor pressure group nipping at the heels of the bosses: they are the key to the whole thing, the one sector in the business that always meets the targets set and always 'add value' - to use business-speak.

"When I see journalists with real power on the boards of major newspaper groups, I'll believe we might be looking at new models."

Gordon also challenged claims that the unions had been appropriately informed of the two executives' decisions. MediaGuardian reported that Rusbridger and McCall had both informed National Union of Journalists last month of their pay cuts.

Gordon, however, told Journalism.co.uk that an off-the-record meeting had taken place, but that this was 'hardly informing the chapels'.

"[MEN] Chief reporter David Ottewell and I had a tough, on both sides, but courteous, off-the-record meeting with Carolyn and other GMG execs a couple of weeks ago and we mentioned bonuses and she hinted at something like this but it was off-the-record and we treated it as such," she said.

A spokesperson from GMG told Journalism.co.uk that separate meetings with the GNM [Guardian and Observer] chapel and MEN chapel officials had taken place in March.