It’s a tough time for struggling families across the country. Inflation, price increases, a cost-of-living crisis and taxes going up. But one place where belts are remaining decidedly un-tightened is the editor’s office at the Guardian, where champagne corks have been popping at the latest company accounts. For Katharine Viner– the editor-in-chief of the progressive periodical – has seen her pay rise by 42 per cent (or £150,000) to a whopping £509,000 in the year to April. It came after the newspaper’s parent company, Guardian Media Group (GMG), hailed its best results since 2008.
Good news all round then surely? Most in the media would accept that if the Guardian had a very successful year then why shouldn’t they reward its leaders? Unfortunately, such open-minded unabashed capitalists do not seem to include, er, the Guardian itself which, as the Telegraph pointed out, has frequently decried excessive executive pay in its own pages. One story featured by the world’s wokest newspaper was headlined ‘What cost of living crisis? Bumper executive bonuses make a comeback’ while another warned that ‘Profiteering bosses, not workers, are pushing up inflation.’
It’s not just Viner getting such riches: GMG also paid its former chief executive Annette Thomas £795,000 after she left following a clash with Viner over the direction of the business. The Telegraph notes that Thomas received a ‘one-off’ payment on top of her £630,000 base salary, meaning she made £1.5 million in 15 months on the job. Not bad work if you can get it! Such lavishes are paid for by the Guardian’s proprietor, the Scott Trust, which runs a £1.3 billion investment fund. It currently has a strategy to invest more money in private equity funds, which have ‘the potential to achieve higher returns compared with traditional asset classes’. Naturally, last year the Guardian last year slammed private equity, claiming it is ‘draining British business dry.’
Bit rich, eh?
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