Base salary increases for the four top officials at Carthage-based Fortune 500 company Leggett & Platt were approved by the company's Compensation Committee March 31, according to a filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Chairman of the Board and CEO Felix Wright will have a 3.25 percent salary increase, from $816,000 to $842,000, while David S. Haffner, president and chief operating officer, will see his salary improve 9.70 percent from $652,800 to $716,140.
Karl G. Glassman, executive vice president and president of the Residential Furnishings department, will have a whopping 17.02 percent pay increase, from $489,600 to $572,915. Jack D. Crusa, senior vice president, specialized products, will receive a 4 percent increase from $250,000 to $260,000, according to the SEC filing.
The larger percentage increases for Haffner and Glassman reflect planned management transition, the filing indicated. The information was filed to update executive pay figures filed with the SEC on Feb. 28, according to the filing. They were featured at that time in The Turner Report.
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A minor snag popped up today in Lee Enterprises' impending purchase of Pulitzer, Inc., owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
St. Louis Business Journal reports the Securities and Exchange Commission plans to review Pulitzer's preliminary proxy material. The deal has yet to be approved by Pulitzer shareholders.
If the deal goes through Lee becomes the fourth-largest newspaper company in the U. S. behind number one Gannett, owner of the Springfield News-Leader, number two Community Newspaper Holdings, owner of The Joplin Globe, and number three Liberty Group Publishing, owner of The Carthage Press and The Neosho Daily News.
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Nexstar Broadcasting has introduced another of its innovations in television, according to the Springfield, Ill, State Journal Register. Nexstar's WCIA-TV in Champaign will handle the newscasts for its Springfield station WCFN, according to the article.
Two reporters and a photographer will be stationed full-time in Springfield. This will be the UPN affiliate's first news broadcast. The anchor at the Champaign station will drop one of its broadcasts there and take over anchoring duties for the Springfield station.
The station manager said having the anchor stationed in Champaign doesn't make it any less of a Springfield newscast. The weather reporter will also be from the Champaign station
The new newscast will be only the second in the city, the article said. The NBC affiliate also has a newscast. The Nexstar station will only have a 9 p.m. newscast Monday through Friday.
I am sure there are no plans to do anything similar in the Joplin/Springfield markets, but it is a concept that certainly be applied and would enable the company to save a few bucks.
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The Joplin Globe reports this morning that former O'Sullivan Industries executive Gary Blankenship has been bound over for trial and has a hearing scheduled April 14 on charges of possession of child pornography and enticing a child.
Blankenship, 55, had his bond reduced by Judge Greg Stremel to $50,000, according to today's Neosho Daily News.
Posters on lamarmo.com are reporting that a number of O'Sullivan workers have been contacted by people representing Blankenship, wanting them to serve as character witnesses for their client. Thus far, it appears they have had little success.