Guardian Reveals What It Will Costs You To Poach George Monbiot
WANT to know what George Monbiot earns? The Guardian oput the news on its front page. He published a “registry of interests“. Tim tells us that Monbiot earns £75,000 a year gross or thereabouts.
As opposed to a Toynbee which runs at £116,000 I’m told, or a Rusbridger which is £500,000 plus bonus and pension contributions.
Fleet Street Blues has other details:
The key figure, since you ask – his annual contract with the Guardian – is £62,007, while he also has a £40,000 deal with Penguin book publishers over 3-4 years and earns £5,400 rent from lodgers… The MediaGuardiancovered the story, with the £62k figure,as soon as he published the register – but there was an interesting word in the first line: ‘Guardian columnist George Monbiot has called on journalists to sign up to a mandatory register of interests – and taken the first step by unilaterally declaring his own’. Unilaterally?
Only problem is, when you get to the article itself (the online version of the print article is here), as Harry Wallop points out, you won’t find out. There isn’t actually a figure.
So why is the Guardian so coy about the numbers? Well, for a start, now everyone else on Fleet Street knows exactly how much it costs to poach him. And then there’s his better-paid/worse-paid colleagues, who’ll be immediately looking at their own contracts again.
Should everyone publicly declare what they earn?
Posted: 1st, October 2011 | In: Money Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
