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Top director leaves publisher with £825,000 exit package

A senior executive leaving Johnston Press at the end of this month is to receive a package totalling £825,000 under the terms of his departure.

As announced last December, the publishing group’s chief operating officer Danny Cammiade, left, is standing down on 31 March after 35 years with JP and its predecessor companies.

The company’s annual report published this week reveals that he will receive a payment of £420,000 – equivalent to a year’s salary plus benefits – to be paid in 12 monthly instalments from April.

In addition, Danny will receive a cash bonus of £405,000, representing 125pc of his basic salary, to be paid next month.

According to the report, Danny was paid a salary of £324,000 in 2012 and also received an additional £97,000 in pension contributions and taxable benefits.

The money is being paid out under the terms of a compromise agreement entered into between Danny and the company on 13 December 2012 – four days before his resignation was announced.

The report states:  “Under the terms of the new agreement…he will be entitled to receive payment of one year’s basic salary, pension, car allowance and medical insurance (totalling £420,000) to be paid in 12 equal monthly instalments commencing in April 2013. The agreement also provides that he is entitled to receive a cash bonus equivalent to 125pc of salary payable on 8 April 2013.

“This amount recognises Mr Cammiade’s contribution to the Group throughout 2012 and during the first three months of 2013 and his management of specific projects during that time.”

The group’s remuneration committee, which oversees executive pay, said it was “satisfied that this arrangement was necessary to continue to drive the group’s cost performance, improve efficiencies and manage the implementation of a new management structure during the transitional period in 2012 and early in 2013, and merited in recognising Mr Cammiade’s key role in delivering these objectives.”

Danny’s departure follows an “agreed transition period” following the appointment of Ashley Highfield as JP chief executive in November 2011.

Both Ashley and Danny were in competition for the chief executive’s role, but although Danny lost out in the race the company was keen for him to stay on to help oversee the transition to new leadership.

Danny originally came into Johnston Press after it bought Sussex-based Beckett Newspapers, where he started his career on the advertising sales team in 1978.

Following the company’s sale to JP, he was appointed managing director of the West Sussex County Times in 1994.

In 1996 he became managing director of Johnston Newspapers North Midlands division, which included the Derbyshire Times, before moving to Portsmouth in 1999 as divisional managing director following the acquisition of Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers.

He was appointed director of operations in November 2001 before joining the company’s main board as an executive director in 2005.

19 comments

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  • March 28, 2013 at 8:27 am
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    Who is lining themselves up at JP senor management to be next to go with a huge cash send off? It’s certainly not the journos who are being forced out to pay for this.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 8:52 am
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    Words fail me! But I bet there are plenty of Scotsman journalists with a word or two to say.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 9:08 am
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    To those who still try to justify being a journalist, this is the reality. I know which route I wish I’d taken, and it certainly wasn’t the T-line route

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  • March 28, 2013 at 10:19 am
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    “The agreement also provides that he is entitled to receive a cash bonus equivalent to 125pc of salary payable on 8 April 2013″

    Entitled? I work in Sales for JP i’ve been told that bonus payments are discretionary. And i’ve had to face a bonus cut this year of almost 50%

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  • March 28, 2013 at 10:48 am
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    I honestly thought I must have misread the figure at first.
    We’ve been led to believe JP is struggling to service its massive debt – at least this is the reason usually trotted out when they’re sacking journalists by the score.
    Handing out a golden handshake of £825,000 under these circumstances seems reckless at best.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 11:11 am
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    I’m disgusted. Almost a quarter of the workforce have had to be let go in the past year! Angry does not sum up how I feel. How can he sleep at night knowing that this cash could have gone to save numerous posts elsewhere!? Most of the jobs under threat right now in Edinburgh could be saved in one fell swoop if the £800,000 he’s getting was turned down.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 11:32 am
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    I don’t think ‘basic’ is the adjective I’d use to describe a £324k salary…

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  • March 28, 2013 at 11:46 am
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    I agree Rob. People buy lottery tickets in the hope of receiving that much.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 12:03 pm
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    ‘Disgusted’, ‘Words fail me’ … fat cat payouts are a way of life and hardly surprising, especially at JP who don’t give a monkey’s about journalists and treat them with condescending contempt.
    To JP journalists … get out, the grass IS greener and there IS work out there.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 12:15 pm
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    And see the other story about journos voting against strikes? Can’t help thinking they deserve what they (don’t) get.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 1:39 pm
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    And here’s a lesson for all journalists – get out, get on.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 1:48 pm
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    That’s an awful comment ‘Glad I’m Out of It’. The only reason there have been mixed responses to the NUJ’s overtones is because most people think the NUJ has the same bite as a centenarian who liked their candy too much as a kid. JP doesn’t care what happens on the front-line, it’s only the bottom-line they’re bothered about. No amount of NUJ waffle will change that. I suspect many JP reporters are too busy planning their exit strategies to worry about marching onto an ineffective picket line.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 2:15 pm
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    And there you have it..

    “satisfied that this arrangement was necessary to continue to drive the group’s cost performance, improve efficiencies and manage the implementation of a new management structure during the transitional period in 2012 and early in 2013, and merited in recognising Mr Cammiade’s key role in delivering these objectives.”

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  • March 28, 2013 at 2:35 pm
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    Another HTFP story today says a £10m windfall, paid to JP by News International to get out of a print contract, wlll go towards paying off JP’s debt. Well, not all of it will, and nor will it go towards narrowing the yawning pension scheme deficit which grows more alarming by the month.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 2:40 pm
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    Mr Cammiade was also “in post” when disastrous decisions were made to buy papers in Northern Ireland and Scotland at inflated prices.

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  • March 28, 2013 at 5:03 pm
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    Three letters spring to mind. In text peak………. FFS!

    Oh @Mr T ”the grass IS greener and there IS work out there”……but only if you fancy a career out of journalism in my experience. As an experienced fully qualified ‘tog of 23 years I now work as……………….a postman.

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  • April 2, 2013 at 11:11 am
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    Have 40 journalists for a year, or pay Danny his bonus.

    Glad you’re spending you’re money in the right place Ashley!

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  • April 2, 2013 at 6:01 pm
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    No doubt Danny will get paid on time. Having freelanced as an editor regularly for JP for two and a half years I am still waiting for payment of my January invoice. I know I am not the only one. Luckily, I have now escaped JP’s clutches and am being paid on time by a much better employer.

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  • April 3, 2013 at 5:04 pm
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    With the current pay-rise system (i.e. you get nothing) i’d have to work for JP another 20 years to earn when he does in a year. Add on another 30 years if you included the departure package!

    Is that likely to happen though? – I hope not.

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