NBC Vets Running MS NOW’s Parent Company Will Get ‘Eye-Popping,’ Rachel Maddow-Sized Compensation, Despite Lay-Offs

As Comcast cleaves off its declining cable networks into a separate company, Versant, the new firm’s executives — all veterans of NBCUniversal — could receive compensation packages as large as Rachle Maddow’s enviable deal at MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) and similar to that of generational media executives such as the Walt Disney Company’s chief executive, Bob Iger. Versant — which includes MS Now, CNBC, and other Comcast cable networks, most of which were part of Comcast’s NBCUniversal subsidiary — filed documentation last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a required step for the company to register its stock for trading on the NASDAQ. The filing, which was more than 200 pages long, included the pay of Versant’s top executives, including its chief executive, Mark Lazarus, who was awarded a $2.5 million base salary. But that meager number is just the beginning. Mr. Lazarus is also slated to receive a one-time “founder” equity grant of $12.5 million. He will be eligible to receive annual performance bonuses “with an annual target bonus equal to” 300 percent of his base salary, or about $7.5 million. And every year he is at the company, he will receive “an additional $12.5 million in stock.”A far-left media reporter, Oliver Darcy, notes that Mr. Lazarus’s compensation package for his first year will be around $35 million. The next year is expected to be around $22.5 million.That’s somewhat more than MS NOW’s biggest star, Rachel Maddow, is believed to be paid. She reportedly makes $25 million a year to work one day a week, down from $30 million a year for the weekly shirt in her last contract. Mr. Lazarus is likely to be expected to work five days a week.The chief financial officer and chief operating officer, Anand Kini, who, like Mr. Lazarus is an NBCUniversal veteran, will receive a base salary of $2.3 million and will be eligible for a 200 percent bonus. He will also receive $7.5 million in “founder” stock and receive an additional $6.4 million in equity annually. Versant’s general counsel, Jordan Fasbender, whose father was a longtime CNBC producer, will receive an annual salary of $1 million and be eligible for a 120 percent bonus. She will also receive $1 million in “founder” stock and an additional $2 million in equity annually.The eye-popping pay packages may explain why Versant — which many media observers believe is a vehicle for the different cable networks, which are fast declining assets though still very profitable, to be sold off to private equity where they will be cut and squeezed for maximum profit in their twilight years — is still a desirable assignment for a senior executive looking to accrue generational wealth.The chairman of NBCUniversal’s News Group, Cesar Conde, was passed over for the job despite his polished reputation, in a move that some media observers speculate was the result of his handling of Ms. Maddow’s contract negotiations, the result of which exposed Comcast to great public ridicule. He now presides over a vastly reduced portfolio.The enormous compensation packages come as layoffs are wracking the TV news business, with recent terminations being viewed as just the beginning. NBC News recently laid off about 150 employees in cuts related to the MSNBC spin-off, since NBC News is no longer servicing MSNBC. More layoffs at NBC News are expected soon. MS NOW had brutal layoffs early this year, which Ms. Maddow denounced as racist, and is expected to have more cutbacks as MS NOW restructures (MS NOW has also been hiring).Mr. Lazarus’s target compensation for his first year puts his pay package on par with executives of media giants such as Mr. Iger, who received a pay package of $41.1 million in 2024. Most of Mr. Iger’s compensation came in the form of awards and stock options, and his salary was $1 million. The chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, collected a compensation package of $51.9 million last year. And with WBD for sale, Mr. Zaslav could make as much as $500 million if the sale closes. Meanwhile, the chief executive of Skydance Media, which controls Paramount Global, David Ellison, earns a base salary of $3.5 million and is eligible for a target bonus of $1.5 million. He is the son of the world’s second-richest man, Larry Ellison, who backed his son’s acquisition of Paramount and is now backing his efforts to buy WBD.Mr. Darcy called the details of the compensation packages for Versant executives “eye-popping figures.” However, he noted that while on paper the packages are enormous, they are “roughly 93 percent performance-based,” which means the “executives will only realize those totals if the company performs well.”“And as the disclosure form makes clear, Versant will have no shortage of challenges once it exits Comcast’s warm embrace,” Mr. Darcy wrote. Despite the stipulation that Versant’s enormous compensation packages are contingent on the company performing well, they still stand out, as Versant is composed of the declining cable networks formerly under Comcast’s umbrella, such as MS NOW — formerly MSNBC — and CNBC, which were split off from Comcast’s streaming and studio business. In the short term, the cable networks remain extremely profitable because of their dual revenue streams of cable subscription fees and advertising. There have been questions about how Versant will navigate the tumultuous landscape of the declining linear TV business.Versant’s filing states that its portfolio of cable networks is profitable, though its revenue is decreasing. In 2022, the cable networks brought in $7.8 billion, but revenue dipped to $7.1 billion in 2024, a trend most media insiders expect will continue.Versant also noted in its SEC filing that there is an array of risks facing the company, including “litigation, governmental scrutiny, and fines,” which seemed to be a subtle nod to the possibility that President Trump may sue MS NOW over its left-wing, anti-Trump coverage. MS NOW, as MSNBC, recently settled an embarrassing lawsuit over a story, presented by far-left “immigration reporter” Jacob Soboroff, which amplified discredited allegations from a whistleblower that a doctor at a George immigration detention facility was performing mass hysterectomies and was known as “the uterus collector.”

NBC Vets Running MS NOW’s Parent Company Will Get ‘Eye-Popping,’ Rachel Maddow-Sized Compensation, Despite Lay-Offs

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