CEO compensation at WSJ parent rose 20 percent in fiscal 2017

News Corp. chief executive officer Robert Thomson received total compensation of $13.5 million in the company’s 2017 fiscal year, up nearly 20 percent from his total compensation of $11.3 million during the previous year.

Thomson, the former publisher and managing editor of the company’s Wall Street Journal, received a base salary of $2 million, similar to previous years, according to the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

His stock awards rose in 2017 to $6.7 million, up from $5.37 million in 2016. However, that award will not be paid out until fiscal year 2019 and may not reach the full amount, depending on the company’s performance.

Adjusting his compensation for that, Thomson actually received $8 million in the latest fiscal year, compared with $9.2 million in the year before.

Thomson’s nonequity incentive plan compensation rose to $4 million, up from $3.2 million in 2016. His all other compensation also increased to $407,593 in 2017 from $394,453 in 2016.

News Corp. is the parent of The Journal, MarketWatch, Barron’s and Dow Jones Newswires, among other operations.

In the company’s 2017 fiscal year, revenue fell 2 percent to $8.14 billion from $8.29 billion, partially due to lower advertising at its publications.

The company reported a loss from continuing operations of $643 million, compared to a profit of $235 million in 2016, due to write-offs at its British and Australian newspaper operations.

Revenue at the news and information operations fell 5 percent from $5.3 billion in 2016 to $5.1 billion in 2017.

In the past year, the company has begun a program called WSJ2020 designed to make the Journal a digital-first operation and cut $100 million in annual expenses.