The Gold Mine Called “Alternative Media”- Four Years in Business with $37 Million in Revenues & $584, 914 in Annual Salaries
Yesterday we published a report exposing ProPublica- A 501 (C) (3) Nonprofit Organization in New York City, born in 2008, under the guise of Independent Alternative Media. The highly successful enterprise was the brainchild of two crusty Wall Street men: Paul Steiger and Richard Tofel.
During the first year of its operation ProPublica secured $6,000,000 in seed money from all the who’s who of corporate foundations and dynasties such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, George Soros, Ford, Goldman Fund, Hewlett Foundation, etc.
Since their enterprise operation began in July of 2008, ProPublica has secured over $37,000,000 in funding from all the corporate sugar daddies, some of whom are mentioned above.
Our report yesterday emphasized this brand new enterprise’s mega-million funding and billionaire funders. We also provided coverage of ProPublica’s partners, who cover the entire charlatan mainstream media – players such as the New York Times, LA Times, CNN, CBS and the rest.
Here is a summary of ProPublica’s Funding sources for one year-2012:
Board of Directors contributions and related grants= $ 4,496,000
Major grants and gifts ($50,000 and above) = 4,631,000
Business Advisory Council contributions = 181,000
Online donations = 178,000
Other grants and gifts = 636,000
Earned income = 38,000
Total $10,160,000
Please pay attention to the highlighted numbers. For an NGO that is advertising itself as an “Independent” and for the Public, Propublica received less than 2% of its $10 Million from the people- of their $10,160,000, only $178,000 came from the people. So who are they serving again? Whose enterprise are they? Answer please.
Today, after spending hours analyzing ProPublica’s tax forms, which list their enterprise’s expenses for 2012 (Click Here ), we have more shocking items to report. For this report we are concentrating mainly on the incredibly extravagant salaries listed for this newly created NGO enterprise, since the level of money they receive would even raise the eyebrows of the highest paid reporters-managers in mainstream media publications.
The average salary earned by Presidents-CFOs/CEOs within the NGO industry is $97,000 a year.
The President and Editor in Chief for ProPublica, Paul E. Steiger (Position in 2012), made $570,000 + $14,914 = $584,914
The 2012 average salary for managing editors for major publications is $65,000.
The Managing Editor for ProPublica, Stephen Engelberg, made $360,000 + $31, 758 = $391, 758
The average salary for NGO general managers is around $60,000 a year.
The General Manger for ProPublica (Position in 2012), Richard Tofel, made $335,000 + $28,600 = $363,600
The average salary for Vice President (VP) positions within the NGO community is $70,000.
The Vice President for ProPublica, Debra Goldberg, made $240,000 + $20, 2135 = $260,135
The average salary for editors for major publications in New York is $61,000.
The Editor for ProPublica, Mark Schoofs, made $184,000 + $7918 = $191,918
The 2012 average salary for reporters in major publications in New York is around $67,000.
A Senior Reporter for ProPublica (Position in 2012), Jesse Eisinger, made $218,500 + $29,682 = $248,182.
Another Senior Reporter, for ProPublica, Dafna Linzer, made $212,000 + $18,534 = $230,534 .
Another ProPublica Senior Reporter, Charles Ornstein, made $192,500 + $$25,984 = $218,484
And yet another Propublica Senior Reporter, Tracy Weber, made $192,500 + $20,270 = $212,770
The last we heard (and read) journalists were crying out loud on the issue of shrinking and even disappearing already-meager salaries. Well, the industry’s report on average salaries justifies them, since even within the major publications in New York many senior reporters are collecting less than $60,000. What do you know! They should be lining up for jobs with the NGO online publications!! ProPublica reporters are making quarter million dollars annual salaries and benefits ($248,000).
Same with managers and mid-level editors. The private publication business industry seems nothing compared to some start-up NGOs. Look, the general managers and mid-level VPs at ProPublica are raking hundreds of thousands of dollars ($363,600 & $260,135).
And check out the Wall Street man who had the nose to smell where the real money was going to come from: Mr. Paul E. Steiger with $584,914. And whoever said you can’t make millions of dollars within a couple of years using NGO models and dirty sugar daddies has been proven wrong!
Ladies and gentlemen, if you have given donations/contributions to ProPublica you should be waking up now. They are the perfect example of the corrupt establishment creating pseudo alternative mediums for controlled-opposition. If I were you I’d be at their door, knocking; I’d be asking for my donations back with interest. I’d be notifying the appropriate channels if I were tricked under false pretenses. You see, when we catch ones like ProPublica we are not powerless. We can show our people power. We can do something about it. So do it. Also, please take responsibility and notify others to raise awareness. We can do this. We must do it.
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Sibel Edmonds is the Publisher & Editor of Boiling Frogs Post and the author of the Memoir Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story. She is the recipient of the 2006 PEN Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “commitment to preserving the free flow of information in the United States in a time of growing international isolation and increasing government secrecy” Ms. Edmonds has a MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.
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