What Scandal? Rupert Murdoch’s Pay Climbs 47% to $33.3M

Here’s a story that made us do a double-take.

It was weird enough this summer when we learned that Rupert and James Murdoch were both in line to get multimillion-dollar bonuses (you know, despite that whole scandal thing). Now it turns out that Rupert Murdoch’s salary could see a rather, umm, ridiculous climb. Is he the Teflon kid or what?

That’s right, folks, reports this morning show that Rupert Murdoch’s total compensation reached $33.3 million for fiscal year 2011. That’s a 47-percent climb over the previous year. Yikes.

This is according to a regulatory filing News Corp made this morning — but while the numbers are shocking, it may be too soon to completely freak out about the pay. It’s not yet clear whether this compensation climb was due to exercising stock options or whatever other excuse News Corp might possibly be able to scrape together, so let’s all reserve judgment for just a little bit? Or try to, at least?

The report also noted that Kenneth Crowley and Thomas Perkins were ditching the board, while venture capital superhero (and press-anointed “Smartest [tech] Investor”) Jim Breyer has been nominated to jump into the lion’s den. It’s a bit of an odd fit — but if News Corp could pull it off, that could be a major coup.

TAGS: how much does rupert mudoch make | murdoch compensation | murdoch paid $33.3 million | murdoch phone hacking | murdoch salary

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