Richard Stengel left the managing-editor job at Time magazine to work full-time at the State Department for his hero Barack Obama. But not long before he left, he was telling staff to accept a severance package or be laid off.
Jim McElhatton of The Washington Times reports that these budget cuts “didn't extend to the more than quarter-million-dollar bonus that Time had doled in 2012 out to Mr. Stengel on top of his $700,000 base salary, records obtained by The Washington Times show.” Don't liberal journalists usually think of this as Republican behavior? Is this an Oliver Stone movie come to life?
And while Time Inc. has moved to freeze pay and lay off hundreds of employees this year, Mr. Stengel estimates that he is still in line to receive another bonus worth $100,000 to $250,000, according to a recent government ethics filing.
The $289,000 bonus last year, as well as the anticipated bonus to be paid out early next year, came to light in a disclosure form Mr. Stengel filed following his nomination to undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department. The White House announced the nomination in September.
Mr. Stengel did not respond to a request for comment through the State Department, nor did Time after being provided a copy of the ethics filing.
A State Department spokeswoman said Friday that Mr. Stengel was aware of the newspaper’s inquiry and would respond if he had anything to say.
The Times turned to liberal journalism professor Edward Wasserman at the University of California at Berkeley, who complained, “It offends our sense of justice...Some people are not just escaping, but walking away in terrific shape financially, whereas others get a fairly minimal severance and no safety cushion at all.”
Will liberal media reporters follow up on this story and demand more answers from Stengel and Time? After all the Time magazine rants about executive greed? McElhatton also reported:
The New York Times reported in January that Mr. Stengel was seeking two researchers, one staff writer and three copy editors to accept severance deals, but added that he would use layoffs if not enough volunteers accepted.
“Time Inc. is undertaking a company-wide restructuring,” Mr. Stengel wrote earlier this year in an internal memo, which was first reported on by The Wall Street Journal. “As part of this cost savings initiative, we need to make some cuts in our editorial staff.”
While Mr. Stengel did not respond to inquiries on this bonus, he provided more detail to a State Department ethics official about the upcoming bonus he expects to receive.
“Consistent with the customary practice for departing executives of Time Magazine, I will receive a pro-rated bonus in early 2014 based on the pre-established terms of the company’s bonus plan for work I completed in 2013,” he wrote in a letter to the State Department’s ethics official.
Based on a memo from Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang earlier this year, it’s not likely that many others are expecting bonuses. She reminded staff that the company needed to “aggressively manage costs” and that it would be forced to eliminate annual merit increases for staff in 2013.
