Washington Post newsroom ire over publisher’s payday

Washington Post staffers are fuming that publisher Katharine Weymouth, granddaughter of legendary Katharine Graham, raked in more than $2 million in 2010. After the figures were released, some staffers dared to tweet their gripes, including Ylan Q. Mui and Josh Freedom du Lac. “Trending topic at WaPo: ‘Katharine Weymouth gets $2M and raise while newsroom enjoys cost-cutting,’ ” Mui tweeted. A reporter told us, “It’s a little much, because that was her salary in 2010 when there were rounds of buyouts.” The reporter also griped about Weymouth’s mother Lally‘s columnist salary: “Paying her $300,000 a year is more than double or even triple than a lot of reporters are getting.” Last spring, the Newspaper Guild put out a statement bemoaning staff sacrifices when it was revealed that Katharine’s received a bonus of nearly $500,000 and a 10 percent salary raise in 2009. Guild co-chair Fredrick Kunkle told us yesterday, “We’ve been through such difficult times, and the publisher continues to take these big bonuses when we haven’t had a respectable raise since 2008.” The paper didn’t get back to us.