Daily Express owner Richard Desmond paid himself £40.6 million in 2006, more than four times the £9.1 million pre-tax profits of Northern & Shell Network, the holding company for all of his media assets, according to account documents to be published this week.

The payment will show up in Northern & Shell's annual results, and will also reveal the media boss gave himself quite a pay increase from the £27.3 he received in 2005, which followed a bumper 2004 payout of £51.7 million.

Desmond's media stakes housed under the holding company include weekly celebrity tabloid OK! and Express Newspapers.

Northern & Shell had an expected £460.5 million turnover for the year ending Dec. 31, 2006, down from £463.5 million in 2005, the Guardian reported.

Desmond's personal fortune is at an estimated £1.9 billion, which puts him in the 28th spot in 2007's Sunday Times Rich List, Brand Republic reported. In 2006, financial magazine Forbes ranked Desmond at number 746 among the world's wealthiest people for that year.

Following a shaky start when the title launched in August 2005, Northern & Shell invested £16.6 in the U.S. edition of OK! last year. Currently, it sells more than one million copies each week, the Guardian reported.

Critics have attacked Desmond for cutting costs and journalists' positions, but he argues he is managing cautiously.

According to ABC, circulation for Daily Express, averaging 827,000 in August, have fallen under his ownership. Sunday Express sales have also fallen, and were at 789,000 last month, the Guardian reported, noting that Desmond has stopped bulk sales and other tricks used to boos circulation.