Geography

• With seven-figure salaries reserved for stars like O'Reilly, regional anchors still make good money. In November 2010, Fox confirmed $460,000 as the top end of its annual salary for Washington, D.C. correspondents like Catherine Herridge, Josh Gerstein reported on the Politico.com website. Fox's disclosure came in response to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit filed on Herridge's behalf, Gerstein said. Herridge alleged that Fox retaliated after she complained of losing a weekend slot due to age and gender.
  
  

Features

• High-profile anchors in major metropolitan markets have been equally well-rewarded. One example is Ernie Anastos, the face of Fox's New York station, WNYW. The anchor had been earning that sum for five years when he signed a new multi-year deal, "The New York Daily News" noted in December 2009. Terms were not disclosed, but included provisions to produce specials for potential national distribution. Anastos's deal was expected to keep him near competitors Sue Simmons and Chuck Scarborough, who reportedly earned $3 million per year.
  
  

Effects

• Announced in October 2010, Fox's deal with anchor Shepard Smith drew attention for its size. Smith was to earn $7 to $8 million per year through 2014, the "New York Times" reported. Although nowhere near Katie Couric's $15 million annual salary, Smith's contract outpaced the $5 and $6 million paid to CNN rivals Anderson Cooper and Lou Dobbs, respectively. Having joined the network on its 1996 inception, he was best-known as anchor of "The FOX News Report With Shepard Smith," which averaged an estimated 100 million viewers.
  
  

Significance

• As impressive as Smith's deal appeared, salaries reached record heights in October 2008, after Bill O'Reilly signed a new four-year deal worth more than $10 million per year, the "Washington Post" reported. The deal put O'Reilly on par with stars like Hannity and Glenn Beck, who left CNN to join Fox. O'Reilly's high-decibel commentary style on "The O'Reilly Factor," one of Fox's flagship programs, had been credited with drawing more than four million viewers -- which are unheard-of numbers in cable TV, the newspaper noted.
  
  

Considerations

• Like its competitors, Fox was not exempt from economizing amid an era of declining ad revenues. Anastos acknowledged that point about his new deal with WNYW, whose management had converted several staffers to freelance status. Other media critics, like Riptide Communications President David Lerner, suggested that demographics would gradually make Fox's programming --- which skews heavily toward older white males --- less relevant. With whites likely to become a minority by 2050, Lerner questioned how effectively the network was preparing for that reality.