Big Al | In Forum's '09 finances, a tale of pay cuts -- and a raise; report shows this exec didn't roll over

[Neuharth, 86, tricycling near his home in Cocoa Beach, Fla.]

Last year brought more belt-tightening at the non-profit Freedom Forum journalism foundation and its financial sinkhole, the Newseum in Washington, D.C.: Newly released public documents show some of the highest-compensated employees took pay cuts.

CEO Charles Overby made only $448,831 in 2009 vs. $613,152 in 2008, after excluding a large, one-time bonus he got that year. Senior Vice President Christine Wells, whose name has since disappeared from the officers' list, was paid $290,886 vs. $343,544. And chief finance officer Nicole Mandeville got $319,893 vs. $335,670. (Figures for Wells and Mandeville also exclude big one-time 2008 bonuses.)

But there was one very conspicuous exception: Founder Al Neuharth.

Indeed, he got a raise. Neuharth made $482,651, which included a $262,235 expense account, the documents show. That was up from $461,453 in 2008, including expenses of $231,953. What's more, Neuharth's total pay made him Freedom Forum's highest-paid employee in 2009, according to the foundation's IRS tax report for the year. It's the first time he's been No. 1 in recent foundation history.

Neuharth

Neuharth is 86, and had double knee replacement surgery this year. The tax report says he worked 40 hours a week in 2009 in his capacity as Freedom Forum's founder. It does not offer any details about what he did, including how he spent that six-figure expense account. Since 2006 alone, tax reports show, Freedom Forum has now paid Neuharth nearly $1.8 million in wages, benefits and expenses.

I obtained a copy of the most recent tax report on Monday under the federal open-records law. It gives a microscopic financial view of the foundation, which Neuharth launched in 1991 with $650 million in capital from Gannett's shareholders.

Earlier: Freedom Forum paid Ken Paulson $443,185 in his first year as its No. 2 executive

Related: Download free copies of the 2009 tax reports. Here's Freedom Forum's. And here's the Newseum's.

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