Freedom paid out $3.7M in bonuses to top executives
Most Freedom Communications employees probably have never heard of the company’s MBO bonus program, but the higher-ups know all about it.
The program paid out more than $3.7 million to Freedom’s top executives during the past year, not to mention other expenses such as partner distributions, automobile reimbursements, club memberships and, for at least one executive, housing allowances, according to federal bankruptcy filings.
At least 49 Freedom executives, including publishers at various newspapers across the country, dipped into the MBO bonus program during the 12 months leading up to the company’s bankruptcy filing in September.
Freedom CEO Scott Flanders received two MBO payments totaling more than $1.1 million during that time, including a $400,000 bonus only weeks before the company filed bankruptcy. Others, such as Orange County Register Publisher Terry Horne and Community Newspapers Division President Jonathan Segal, received bonuses totaling six-figures.
Horne, who was publisher of the East Valley Tribune for a short time before heading up the Register, received roughly $200,000. Segal, who was in charge of the division that included the Tribune, received approximately $189,000.
Tribune employees were told Nov. 2 that the paper would shut down at the end of the year, following 118 years of publishing in Mesa. Tribune Publisher Julie Moreno received two MBO bonuses that totaled more than $65,000.
In addition to the bonuses, there were other perks to holding a top job in the company. Freedom Broadcasting executive Doreen Dawson-Wade was reimbursed more than $7,000 for club membership payments, and Flanders was given more than $70,000 in housing allowances.
Following is a list of the Freedom executives who received bonuses under the MBO program (dollar figures are rounded to the nearest thousand):
Olaf Frandsen, Freedom Newspapers
$72,000 (four MBO bonuses)
John Greider – Freedom Newspapers
$9,000 (one MBO bonus)
Tyler Patton – Freedom Newspapers
$19,000 (two MBO bonuses)
James Shrader - Freedom Newspapers of Illinois
$27,000 (four MBO bonuses)
Richard Davis - Seymour Tribune Company
$4,000 (one MBO bonus)
Richard Fazzone – Porterville Recorder Company
$30,000 (five MBO bonuses)
James Shine - Lima News
$16,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Jennie Lambert – Gaston Gazette
$53,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Ray Sullivan - Freedom Newspapers of New Mexico
$37,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Stephan Wingert – Daily Press
$60,000 (six MBO bonuses)
Paul Mauney – Times-News Publishing Company
$35,000 (four MBO bonuses)
Patrick Canty – Odessa American
$66,000 (four MBO bonuses)
David Phillips – Missouri Freedom Newspapers
$20,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Kent Kilpatrick – Illinois Freedom Newspapers
$34,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Arthur Foster – Freedom Shelby Star
$34,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Vernon Debolt – Freedom Eastern North Carolina
$31,000 (five MBO bonuses)
P. McKibbon – Freedom Colorado Information
$25,000 (one MBO bonus)
Steven Pope – Freedom Colorado Information
$30,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Julie Moreno – Freedom Arizona Information
$65,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Thomas Conner – Florida Freedom Newspapers
$30,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Karen Hanes - Florida Freedom Newspapers
$63,000 (four MBO bonuses)
Erik Thomason - Florida Freedom Newspapers
$18,000 (one MBO bonus)
David Schmall – Appeal Democrat
$53,000 (five MBO bonuses)
Michael Burns – Freedom Newspapers
$150,000 (four MBO bonuses)
Dianne Ippolito – Freedom Newspapers
$68,000 (four MBO bonuses)
Levi Knapp – Freedom Newspapers
$49,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Teresa Nelson – Freedom Newspapers
$61,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Jonathan Segal – Freedom Newspapers
$189,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Michael Costa – Freedom Broadcasting Tennessee
$25,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Lawrence Beaulieu – Freedom Broadcasting Texas
$26,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Kingsley Kelley – Freedom Broadcasting Oregon
$42,000 (three MBO bonuses
Robert Furlong – Freedom Broadcasting New York
$29,000 (three MBO bonuses)
James Lutton – Freedom Broadcasting Michigan
$33,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Doreen Dawson-Wade - Freedom Broadcasting
$155,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Edward Brien Kennedy – Freedom Broadcasting
$44,000 (two MBO bonuses)
William Rinchik – Freedom Broadcasting
$51,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Katherine Bartzoff – Freedom Communications Inc.
$5,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Douglas Bennett - Freedom Communications Inc.
$199,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Ken Brusic - Freedom Communications Inc.
$40,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Marcy Bruskin - Freedom Communications Inc.
$98,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Scott Flanders - Freedom Communications Inc.
$1,150,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Michael Henry - Freedom Communications Inc.
$41,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Terry Horne - Freedom Communications Inc.
$200,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Mark McEachen - Freedom Communications Inc.
$33,000 (one MBO bonus)
JoAnne Norton - Freedom Communications Inc.
$31,000 (one MBO bonus)
Rachel Sagan - Freedom Communications Inc.
$113,000 (two MBO bonuses)
Richard Sant - Freedom Communications Inc.
$43,000 (four MBO bonuses)
Cathy Taylor - Freedom Communications Inc.
$35,000 (three MBO bonuses)
Nancy Trillo - Freedom Communications Inc.
$79,000 (two MBO bonuses)