The board of Johnston Press agreed a deal designed to keep one of its most senior executives in his role, the company’s annual report has revealed.
Chief operating officer Danny Cammiade will be given a full year’s pay plus bonuses were he to leave the regional publishing group on 31 December this year.
The deal, which followed the appointment of Ashley Highfield as chief executive last year, was designed to ensure Mr Cammiade stayed on to help oversee the company’s transition to new leadership.
However it is understood that Mr Cammiade remains fully committed to JP and has no current plans to leave his role.
The report states: “Following the announcement in July of the appointment of Ashley Highfield as chief executive officer, the committee determined that it was in the best interests of the company to retain the services of Danny Cammiade as chief operating officer for the forthcoming financial year during the period of transition for executive management.
“The company therefore entered into a compromise agreement with Danny Cammiade on 19 August 2011 which has the effect of amending his contract of employment.
“This agreement provides that he may, upon the service of notice to the company, terminate his contract of employment with the company on 31 December 2012.
“In such circumstances he will be entitled to receive payment of one year’s basic salary, pension, car allowance and medical insurance to be paid in 12 equal monthly instalments throughout 2013.”
The deal is mentioned as part of the directors’ remuneration report published as part of JP’s annual report yesterday.
It also reveals that Mr Highfield, who joined the company in November 2011, received £67,000 in salary, £26,000 in a cash and shares bonus, a £20,000 pension payment and benefits of £2,000 in the final two months of the year.
Total boardroom pay however fell from £2.814m in 2010 to £2.517m in 2011.
The full report can be read here.
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Have you seen the bonuses they paid themselves last year ?
Unbelievable ! The figures were awful last year yet Fry, Cammiade and even Highfield manage to cop off with big bonus payments. What is going on ?
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The words Fiddles, Nero, Rome, While, Burns spring to mind…
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Never before have I seen such remoteness from reality as the board of directors at Johnston Press. Granted, most executive boards never really understand the company from the grass roots, and will rarely visit regional offices, or meet the underpaid regular staff. But Johnston Press have a unique assembly of ludicrous, overpaid execs who have very little knowledge of the industry (Highfield is from an IT background).
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So much for the new, “flatter”, management structure.
I hope everyone who has responded to the “Your Say” staff satisfaction survey has responded appropriately.
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“Flatter” management structure was a literal (via the hideous atex system, obviously)…they mean “fatter”
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My senior manager tells me that none of the non Board senior managers earnt any bonus last year. Cost cutting was all we did. Don’t tell me that the rest got big bonus payments for chopping staff. That couldn’t happen could it ?
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Slave, your senior manager is lying.
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Scribbler….got my ‘Your Say’ survey filled in alright….except it doesn’t really give you a chance to say anything, my idea of commenting on my job/general working conditions etc cannot be done through a multi-choice tick box form….where was the space for us to actually write down how we feel???….says it all really!
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The recipients of these massive rewards will be getting a further boost when the top rate tax cut takes effect. I can think of much more deserving causes for help than overpaid executives.
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Are we really surprised – no
Do they give a damn – no
… and even if they close the whole firm down the execs have already got their payoffs negotiated – something stinks in the state of JP
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Your Say. Yet another excuse to have a go at editors.
Do you understand the new strategy? Do you agree with it?
If no to either of the above, basically your line manager (editor) will get in trouble.
It’s clear in so many decisions JP makes that editors are seen as the enemy by the beancounters and are undermined constantly.
The survey also has no searching questions and no opportunity for staff to say what they really think.
My only hope is Our Ash will see the amount of disquiet and low morale. But there’s been so much positive spinning of everything recently (for example, the infamous “platform neutral” announcement only revealed the daily to weekly/job losses buried several pars below awful management speak) so I expect the chiefs will only see what they want to see.
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