Trinity Mirror chief executive Simon Fox is being paid a third less than the company’s former boss Sly Bailey, it has been revealed.

The company’s annual report for 2012, which was released today, showed he was employed on a salary of £500,000, compared to the £750,000 previous salary for the top job at the publisher.

The report showed Simon was paid a salary package of £186,000 in his first four months leading the company, including benefits and cash in lieu of pension.

He is being paid less after Trinity Mirror’s remuneration committee made changes to the terms offered for the top role including reducing bonuses and share awards paid to him and other directors.

It also showed that Simon was also awarded shares worth around £1m at the time of issue, including a “golden hello” of £600,000, but he will only receive these if the performance of the shares meets set criteria in 2014 and 2015.

His role as chief executive began on 10 September after Sly stepped down last June after nearly 10 years at the helm of the national and regional publishing group.

The report showed that she received a payoff of almost £900,000 when she left the company, which was equivalent to 46 weeks’ base salary, taxable benefits and pension.

In the report, Jane Lighting, chair of the remuneration committee, wrote: “We also recognised that, although it is over simplistic to impose a direct link between executive director remuneration and market capitalisation, the size of some of the remuneration packages – particularly their cash elements – had become out of balance.

“This was despite the fact that there had been a freeze in executive salaries since 2008.”

Trinity Mirror has declined to comment.