Reed's chief earns £3m amid charges row

The chief executive of Reed Elsevier, the FTSE 100 publishing group which is facing a boycott by academics over the cost of accessing scientific research articles, earned a £3m package last year.

Erik Engstrom got a base salary of just over £1m and short-term bonus worth 100 per cent of salary, taking his pay to almost £2.1m, according to the annual report published yesterday. Mr Engstrom was granted shares worth a further €1.1m (£920,000) that vest in 2014. The board upped the base salary for Mr Engstrom (pictured) and the finance director, Mark Armour, by 2.5 per cent this year.

But the chairman, Anthony Habgood, sees his salary rise 10 per cent to £550,000.

more than 6,000 academics have protested about Reed's charges, which they say harm research.