Rank and file inside Time Inc. are infuriated that the former CEO Laura Lang is walking away with more than $19 million spread over four years, even though she only served 15 months.
Lang’s salary and bonuses include money earned from 2012 to 2015, when her contract expires.
The former chief reaped a $1 million salary in 2012 — her only full year on the job — but her bonus and stock brought her total pay last year to $7.6 million, according to the IPO document filed by Time Warner with the Securities and Exchange Commission late on Nov. 22.
In 2013, she is getting her base salary, which is close to $1 million, plus a $2.5 million one-time separation bonus.
Next year, she is expected to get a “transaction bonus” of $2.3 million for her work in helping to spin off Time Inc. from Time Warner.
But insiders are further angered because they said in reality, she was shut out from the spin-off process by Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes from the very beginning. “If she had done a better job running the company, maybe we would not be getting spun off,” grumbled one source.
“People are furious,” according to one insider, who said Lang’s haul comes after she chopped 500 jobs earlier this year and froze the salaries of those not laid off.
In addition, managers saw their Time Warner stock-option grants evaporate with the proposed Time Inc. spin-off.
And the resentment has turned up a darker tale of some allegedly lewd behavior by her husband Steve Lang, when he accompanied his spouse on her trip to Hollywood to InStyle magazine’s Golden Globe party in January.
Steve Lang’s behavior and remarks were offensive enough that up to five women filed complaints with the corporate human resources department of Time Inc. and Time Warner upon their return, sources told Media Ink.
“He was a disgrace,” said one source with knowledge of the incidents. “I’m angry that she is sitting pretty with all that money after something like that. It’s disgusting.”
InStyle’s former publisher, Connie Anne Phillips, was also said to have been upset by the alleged brutish behavior by Lang’s husband, and several sources said it played some role in her decision to quit Time Inc. earlier this year.
Reached by Media Ink at Condé Nast, where she is now Glamour publisher, Phillips declined to comment on Time Inc.
Lang said in March she would step down as soon as a new CEO was picked in advance of the spinoff.
Joe Ripp was announced as the new CEO in August, but Lang’s contract did not formally end until November.
Time Inc. and Time Warner declined to comment, and Lang did not return a call or email.