Tribune proposes $14.9 million more in executive bonuses

Tribune Company plans to pay 35 of its top executives $14.9 million in additional 2009 bonuses, a court filing revealed late Monday, despite pointed opposition from several key constituents in the company's 17-month-old Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

Tribune, which owns the Los Angeles Times, describes the bonuses as rewards for steering the company through Bankruptcy Court while generating total operating cash flow of $494 million in 2009. The payments, devised as two plans, would supplement $42.1 million in management incentive bonuses the court allowed Tribune to pay in February to about 670 managers, including most of the executives included in the most senior group. The two new plans also anticipate paying $1.3 million in discretionary bonuses to a group of 50 managers deemed to have made valuable contributions to the restructuring. None of those awards can exceed $65,000, the document said. The total of $58.3 million in bonuses represents $5 million less than the maximum the company could pay under the proposed plans, which are tied to management's exceeding performance targets. The company said several operating executives failed to meet their targets or exceed them by enough in 2009 to merit the highest rewards. Tribune's push to pay the bonuses, even though it is in bankruptcy and still facing declining revenue, has been controversial from the start.