Newspaper price wars are nothing new, they've been going on for years. However, it's rare for a another company to subsidise the cost of a paper. The benefits from doing this are obvious, though - there's going to be substantial advertising of your product in the paper you're subsidising as part of the deal, and your ad will been seen by more readers as a result of the price cut.

I found it moderately amusing, then, that BT tried this trick. These things aren't cheap and, if they're to be believed, they're strapped for cash as well. However, they pressed ahead and gave The Sun their money, and all was well. Or, so they must have assumed.

Far more amusing, then, that The Mirror found out about BT's subsidy ahead of time, and cannily employed another company to do the same on the same day, negating BT's. The fanastic news is that the 'another company' is, in fact, one of BT's domestic competitors.

Excellent, top-drawer stuff!

It was with some additional amusement (and disgust) that I read in this morning's Metro that the cheif executive of BT got something of the order of ?3m out of his company over the last year. This, when due to penny-pinching, many BT jobs are being outsourced to India.

This disclosure is undoubtedly damaging to BT, and is fuel to the fire of industrial unrest amongst BT employees as a result of the upcoming outsourcing exercise.

I fully understand the role and importance of people such as Ben Verwaayen, cheif executive of BT. Can you really justify these sorts of payouts, though? I'd have to argue not, not in any company, even the size of BT. I'm sure many would agree with me, yet these massive payouts continue to be reported in our papers.

Perhaps people like Verwaayen think that us folk will forget about this news in a few days, and nothing more will be said.

I'd like to think that there is a movement, albeit slowly, towards more realistic deals for company heads. If they don't do it themselves, the shareholders and employees are becoming increasingly prepared to do it for them. This, in turn, gives the Government more of a case to intervene. Lets hope this process gathers more momentum, and that a dose of sanity is administered to those tasked with remuneration.

Stories:
Carphone and BT spark new tabloid wars (MediaGuardian.co.uk)
BT chief gets ?250,000 a year for housing costs (Times Online)