Rupert Murdoch has taken a more than 40 per cent pay cut in his role as executive chairman of News Corporation.
In fiscal 2015, Mr Murdoch took home a total package worth nearly $US5.1 million ($7.2 million) from News Corp, down from $US8.7million the previous year.
Mr Murdoch's base salary remained the same at $US1 million, with a further $US4.1 million in stock awards and bonuses, which was down from about $US7.7 million in the 2014 fiscal year.
However, the package does not include what Mr Murdoch will have taken home for his role as chairman and chief executive of 21st Century Fox – the entertainment part of his media empire.
In 2013, Mr Murdoch's media conglomerate split between News Corporation, which includes the publishing assets such asThe Sun, The New York Post and The Australian, as well as Australian pay television provider Foxtel, and 21st Century Fox, which holds the entertainment assets.
Mr Murdoch stepped down from his role as chief executive of 21st Century Fox at the end of the 2015 financial year – being replaced by his son James – but remains executive chairman of the company.
The details of 21st Century Fox's 2015 executive remuneration are yet to be released. However in the 2014 financial year Mr Murdoch took home a total package worth $US29.2 million.
News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson also took a trim to his pay over the 2015 fiscal year, taking home total compensation valued at $US10.3 million, down from $US12.5 million in the previous year.
Chief financial officer Bedi Singh had a total pay package of $US4.6 million, down from $US5.4 million in the previous year.
In the 2015 financial year, News Corp swung to a full-year loss of $US149 million thanks largely to a $US371 million non-cash write-down in its digital education business Amplify – which it is now looking to exit.
Adjusting for impairments, News Corp reported a profit of $US272 million, a 1.5 per cent increase from the previous year.
