Nine insists Stefanovic’s worth more than Wilkinson
LISA Wilkinson asked for $300,000 more than Karl Stefanovic’s base pay and her multimillion-dollar demands would have caused 10 of her Channel 9 colleagues to be sacked, new reports suggest, as the fallout from her defection to Channel 10 turns nasty.
The Today show host abruptly quit the network on Monday, with Nine saying it had “been unable to meet expectations of Lisa Wilkinson and her manager on a contract renewal”.
Nine network chief executive Hugh Marks hit out at Wilkinson in The Daily Telegraph yesterday, saying she was offered a $1.8 million package but wanted $2.3 million.
“I went to an incredible amount of trouble to build that ($1.8 million) package for her. She wanted
$2.3 million. It wasn’t a $200,000 shortfall to (Karl’s) $2 million magic number. It was $500,000,” he said.
A senior network source told Fairfax that meeting Wilkinson’s pay demands would have meant cutting 10 producers’ jobs.
A Nine executive told the Telegraph that Stefanovic was worth more to the network because he hosted Today, as well as working on 60 Minutes and This Time Next Year. “That’s just a fact,” the executive said.
During Wilkinson’s six-month contract negotiations, she told Mr Marks “I want you guys to close the gender pay gap”, The Australian reports.
It also reported she pushed harder in the negotiations when she saw research that showed she was more popular than Stefanovic after his divorce and new romance with Jasmine Yarbrough, who is 10 years his junior.
Mr Marks told the Telegraph that unlike Stefanovic, Wilkinson had “multiple commercial contracts” that meant the network could not use her personality across all of its platforms and social media.
For example, Wilkinson has a reported six-figure deal to write exclusively for the Australian arm of The Huffington Post, a direct rival to nine.com.au.
“I hate the fact we have to compare her with Karl, but with him we have all those rights. With Lisa we do not,” Mr Marks said.
Wilkinson is believed to have accepted more than $2 million a year to defect to Channel 10.