Emmis exec pay slides with company’s performance-WEB ONLY

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Executives of Emmis
Communications Corp. collectively earned 25 percent less in fiscal 2009
compared with the prior year, according to a filing sent to shareholders today
notifying them of the company’s July 14 annual meeting.

The decrease in pay coincides
with recent financial struggles plaguing the Indianapolis-based radio-broadcasting
and magazine-publishing company.

Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan
received compensation in the fiscal year that ended Feb. 28, 2009, of nearly
$1.2 million, according to the formula used by The Associated Press and IBJ to
calculate executive pay.

That was 14 percent less
than the value of his package in fiscal 2008, even though he worked for a
salary of only $1 that year. He still received a bonus and option grants that
year.

Other top executives saw fiscal
2009 pay slip even more. Richard Cummings, radio division president; Gary
Kaseff, vice president and general counsel; and Paul Fiddick, international
division president, all earned at least a third less than they did the previous
fiscal year.

But company directors,
including Susan Bayh, wife of U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Indiana), together saw
their compensation rise by 43 percent. Board members were paid entirely by
stock-and-option awards in fiscal 2009 and received no cash, however.

Bayh, who serves as lead
director for the board members unassociated with the company, earned $99,262 in
stock and other options last year.

Emmis shares were trading at 33 cents this morning, much lower than their
52-week high of $3.17.

In fiscal 2009, the company
lost $283.9 million, or $7.81 per share, compared with a loss of $10.3 million,
or 74 cents per share, the previous year. Revenue fell to $333.9 million, down
7 percent from the year before.

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