I picked up my alumni magazine, the Coloradan, this week, and read an article entitled “Media help CEO get bigger bucks”, along the lines of this online article, based on the research by CU doctoral candidate, Markus Fitza.

How about that.   CEOs of companies with boards of directors with more external-to-the-company members get better pay than those with internal-to-the-company members.   And it’s traceable to how affected those external board members are by external media  — press coverage of the CEOs.   We’ve all heard that movie stars and politicians court the press to advance their careers, but whoever would’ve guessed that press coverage could make CEOs so much richer? 

So the next time you hear media coverage scandalizing how much CEOs are being paid, just remember, it’s all part of the popular press cycle.   Build ’em up, tear ’em down.