Last update - 01:51 03/01/2008
Nimrodi takes 75% wage cut at Maariv after NIS 45 million operational losses
By Nathan Sheva
Following years of financial trouble, cutbacks and resignations in the newspaper Maariv, controlling shareholder and CEO of Maariv Holdings Ofer Nimrodi has decided to waive most of his newspaper salary for a period one year. Maariv filed notice to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange today that Nimrodi will be giving up 75% of his monthly wages, or NIS 63,750 monthly, for a period of 12 months beginning February 2008.
But the step won't cause him too much hardship. The Israel Land Development Co. general assembly is expected to approve Nimrodi's request for a monthly salary of NIS 150,000.
The salary waiver also reflects Nimrodi's reduction in responsibilities. Two new chief editors have recently been appointed to replace Maariv's former editor. The request for approval of Nimrodi's salary agreement at Land Development by its general assembly noted that his salary at Maariv would be cut, and at the request of the Securities Authority, details of his wage cut were detailed today.
"Ofer Nimrodi has taken this step out of a personal sense of leadership and wishes to set an example. While employees are being asked to become more efficient, it is only appropriate to do so," a well-placed source in Maariv said.
Maariv took a NIS 45 million operational loss in the first nine months of 2007, and has suffered operational losses of NIS 76 million since the beginning of 2006. Maariv's losses follow a series of cutbacks implemented by the newspaper in recent years, such as reducing its workforce, in an unsuccessful effort to cover the newspaper's high costs.
Decreasing revenues from advertising and increasing costs of raw materials are among issues plaguing the newspaper's financial condition. Meanwhile, some of its top executives have left, including chief editor Amnon Dankner and senior reporter Dan Margalit, who joined Yisrael Hayom. Nimrodi has tried unsuccessfully to sell the newspaper a number of times over the past year, pitching it to Arcadi Gaydamak and Sheldon Adelson, among others.
Stock investors have not been kind to the paper, either. As the market has climbed to nearly triple original levels over the past six years, Maariv has lost nearly a third of its value.