Murdoch pay package soars to $33.3m

News Corporation chief executive Rupert Murdoch earned $33.3 million (£20.6m) in the last financial year.

His total pay and benefits package rose by 47 per cent in a year when he had hoped that he would crown his British media operations with the acquisition of the satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Details of his remuneration emerged in the latest company filings, which also revealed that venture capitalist Jim Breyer, an early investor in Facebook, will join the company’s board and two directors will leave.

The moves come after corporate governance experts slammed the board’s independence in the wake of the recent phone hacking scandal.

Kenneth Crowley, who is stepping down, has been an associate of Murdoch for nearly 50 years and has been on the board since 1979. Thomas Perkins, a partner of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has been on the board since 1996 and publicly backed Murdoch’s management as the board came under pressure over the hacking scandal.

Perkins resigned from Hewlett-Packard’s board in 2006 after learning that the company had hired private detectives to obtain his phone records.

Earlier this year, Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth was set to become the fourth Murdoch family member to join the board. Following the furore surrounding the phone hacking scandal, she and the board decided not to pursue the nomination.