According to a Lee Enterprises filing with the SEC, CEO Mary Junck has received a $500,000 bonus related to Lee’s successful refinancing. Additionally, Carl Schmidt, vice president, CFO and treasurer, received a $250,000 bonus.
Junck and Schmidt are the fiscal geniuses who way overpaid in 2005 when Lee paid $1.46 billion for Pulitzer Publishing and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Their misjudgment of the industry and its future are what saddled Lee Enterprises with the debt that forced Lee into bankruptcy. And now after Lee wrongly eliminated promised health insurance to its retirees, forced current employees to take unpaid furloughs, froze pensions, cut pay and laid off hundred of employees across the country — now the fiscal geniuses get $750,000 bonuses. Outrageous!!!
Read what Romenesko said about it: http://jimromenesko.com/2012/03/28/layoffs-at-lee-papers-as-ceo-gets-500000-bonus/
We can only assume that once Junck and Schmidt have finished feathering their nests with $100 bills, they’ll be making an announcement rescinding the scheduled 2012 unpaid furloughs for employees across the company, and enclosing a nice check with their apology to the family of deceased P-D retiree Robert Douglas.
Don’t hold your breath Lee employees; if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get a pizza party.