COMPENSATION INFO REVEALED.

More intimate information about executive compensation in the newspaper business surfaced last week, as both Pulitzer Inc. and Gannett Co. Inc., filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission that revealed an executive retention program for the former and the quick vesting of options for the latter.

Pulitzer said on Wednesday that while it was "exploring strategic alternatives" -- seeking out whether it wants to be sold or merely refinanced -- it would offer the top seven executives in the company more than $4 million in "transaction participation bonuses" and retention bonuses.

Should a deal come to pass, Robert C. Woodworth -- the president and chief executive of the St. Louis newspaper publisher -- and should he stay with the company or its successor at least three months following the transaction, would receive $795,593 in both bonuses.

But Woodworth would get only the third-largest combined bonus -- the leader of the pack is Terrance Egger, who is not only senior vice president of Pulitzer, but who also heads up its St. Louis operations, centered around the flagship Post-Dispatch. Egger's bonuses would total $918,657.

Second-place goes to Alan Silverglat, the company's chief financial officer: if the company is sold and he stays for at least three months, Silverglat would get $911,418.

The fourth-best compensated executive in case of a take-over would be Matthew Kraner, a Pulitzer vice president and general manager of the Post-Dispatch: he'd get $653,270.

The other three are company vice presidents who would get around a quarter-million dollars each.

The filing notes that the "maximum aggregate amount" of the bonuses would not be more than $6.2 million.

On Thursday, Gannett -- the country's largest newspaper publisher -- accelerated the vesting of stock options that were supposed to mature over the course of the next four years.

As of Dec. 23, executives and employees at McLean, Va.-based Gannett had options they were mostly given in December 2003 fully vested. Almost 3.9 million options were vested throughout the company with non-executive officers receiving 3.2 million of the options. More than 86,000 non-executive options were granted in February, March and May of this year.

All the options were granted for between $86.15 and $87.33; Gannett stock closed at $81.70 on Friday, down a nickel.

Should the stock take off, the big winner will be Gary Watson, the president of the company's newspaper division. On Dec. 23, he was vested in 530,250 options at $87.33 and earlier in the month had been vested in 282,750 options at the same price, for a month-total vesting of 813,000 options.

The second-biggest winner was Douglas McCorkin-dale, the company's chairman, chief executive and president; 400,000 options vested for him in December.

The remaining three in the executive group each had about 67,000 options vested.

As I said last week about two retiring newspaper executives who worked their way up the news side ranks, if everybody in the newsroom was compensated as well as Watson (a former reporter and city editor), we'd have no problem putting out the highest quality newspapers. I wonder what that would do for readership?