David Brauer, local media reporter for the MinnPost, has published an articled titled "MPR executive pay: Kling tops $600,000" in which he reports on the executive pay at Minnesota Public Radio (MPR).
Topping the list, of course, is Bill Kling, the president and CEO of the entity officially known as Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media. He made $373,254 in compensation and benefits from MPR/APM, which for the year grossed $82.2 million. Kling's total take swelled to $606,753, including approximately $180,000 from American Public Media Group (APMG), which controls MPR, and $48,000 from Greenspring, MPR's for-profit arm.
Brauer's analysis was based on MPR's latest IRS 1099 (pdf). Brauer also mentions MPR's growing endowment when drawing some comparisons between MPR's executive compensation and that of the Minneapolis StarTribune.
And it's worth remembering that MPR — which sits on $110 million in assets and has a growing newsroom — had a far better year than the Strib.
The comments to the article by MinnPost readers are interesting to read. One mentioned WCAL.
I sense this is about to go from rancor over Kling's infamously secret (until now) compensation package to a grueling analysis of the value provided by MPR.
Did MPR provide value to the community when it bought and reformatted WCAL, replacing a pure classical music station with '80s modern rock?
Another pointed out:
I thought it interesting that less than $2 million of the $76 million revenue comes from members. The $1.5 million travel bill also caught my attention- who at MPR is doing a million and a half bucks of travel and where are they going?
Bob Collins, the writer for MPR News Cut, engaged in lengthy responses defending MPR within the comment stream.
