Money & Media

'Freedom Bonus Central' now live

By Nick R. Martin | November 6th, 2009 | 4:41 pm | 3 Comments »

Since Heat City broke the news Thursday that executives with Freedom Communications have been pocketing millions in bonuses while slashing jobs and pay for their employees, a lot of you have been asking for the raw data to see who got what and when.

The bonuses have received so much national attention that I’ve created a special page called “Freedom Bonus Central” that lays out information.

There, you can find an embedded Google spreadsheet with all the data, as well as the bankruptcy documents that detailed the bonuses originally. Also, I understand that more Freedom publishers and executives may have received further bonuses as the company sped toward bankruptcy. I’m trying to confirm this and will add the information if and when I do.

Please, as always, email me with any tips and questions or find me on Twitter.


  • Anonymous

    These appalling bonuses represent nothing more than a bunch of greedy pirates pillaging a sinking ship before it’s completely underwater.

    But if you’re a former employee like myself who is disgusted by this, imagine how Freedom’s lenders who are getting the shaft in the bankruptcy filing are feeling? They lend the Freedom brass hundreds of millions of dollars, then the recipients of the loot turn around and let the company fall to pieces, simultaneously lining their pockets with a few million beans. All the while, employees are either getting laid off or their wages garnished!

    And what’s most disturbing about this saga, is that none of the bonuses rewarded any successful business endeavors. Rather, they were handed out while the Freedom fat cats failed miserably at the jobs they were hired for.

    Look at Julie Moreno at the East Valley Tribune for example. The paper started a free fall into self-destruction as soon as she arrived, and now is being shut down because of all the failed strategies she and her team implemented. Her tenure there consisted of nothing more than locking her incompetent self in her office 90 percent of the time, and spending the other 10 percent of her time meeting with the Trib’s Executive Committee and managers as they made one boneheaded decision after another, ultimately ruining the paper.

    And for that, she is handsomely rewarded?

    This is such a blatant case of corporate greed, excess and utter incompetence by people stuffing their wallets with money they did nothing to earn, that it’s actually hysterical!

    Oh how I would love to see Julie Moreno walk around the depressed Tribune building the next two months, as the blood of her remaining short-timer employees boils with rage as they lose their jobs!!!

  • formertribber

    These appalling bonuses represent nothing more than a bunch of greedy pirates pillaging a sinking ship before it's completely underwater.

    But if you're a former employee like myself who is disgusted by this, imagine how Freedom's lenders who are getting the shaft in the bankruptcy filing are feeling? They lend the Freedom brass hundreds of millions of dollars, then the recipients of the loot turn around and let the company fall to pieces, simultaneously lining their pockets with a few million beans. All the while, employees are either getting laid off or their wages garnished!

    And what's most disturbing about this saga, is that none of the bonuses rewarded any successful business endeavors. Rather, they were handed out while the Freedom fat cats failed miserably at the jobs they were hired for.

    Look at Julie Moreno at the East Valley Tribune for example. The paper started a free fall into self-destruction as soon as she arrived, and now is being shut down because of all the failed strategies she and her team implemented. Her tenure there consisted of nothing more than locking her incompetent self in her office 90 percent of the time, and spending the other 10 percent of her time meeting with the Trib's Executive Committee and managers as they made one boneheaded decision after another, ultimately ruining the paper.

    And for that, she is handsomely rewarded?

    This is such a blatant case of corporate greed, excess and utter incompetence by people stuffing their wallets with money they did nothing to earn, that it's actually hysterical!

    Oh how I would love to see Julie Moreno walk around the depressed Tribune building the next two months, as the blood of her remaining short-timer employees boils with rage as they lose their jobs!!!

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    If its common it might be difficult to get, however, be creative and you can usually find something.