Stunning salaries at NPR

(Josh Gerstein): "As NPR announces layoffs and program cancellations to fix a $23 million budget hole (see here and here), it might be useful to consult the network's tax filings to see what the highest paid employees are/were making. The latest IRS Form 990 on NPR's Web site gives salaries for the year ending September 30, 2007.

• Then-president of NPR Kevin Klose made $465,994 from the network and $151,375 from the NPR foundation for a total of $617,369.

• Kenneth Stern, who served as CEO before leaving abruptly in March of this year, made $427,057.

The 2007 return showed 15 people at NPR with the title of vice president or senior vice president. Most made between about $190,000and $260,000. A page on NPR's Web site shows 14 current vice presidents. NPR reported its five highest paid employees were:

• 1. Managing Editor Barbara Rehm, $383,1392.
• 2. All Things Considered host Robert Siegel, $350,2883.
• 3. Morning Edition host Renee Montagne, $332,160
• 4. Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep, $331,242
• 5. Science reporter Richard Harris, $190,267.

The most eye-catching salary ever reported on an NPR tax form is probably the

• $505,132 paid to broadcaster Bob Edwards in FY2004, the year he was ousted as host of Morning Edition, quit, and
• went to XM Radio.

He hosted his last NPR show in April, five months before the end of the fiscal year, so the half-million dollar salary (presumably including some kind of severance)

• seems to have been for just seven months work."...via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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