After receiving a 21 percent raise, Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, was paid almost £1.5 million in 2007, making him the highest-paid editor on London's Fleet Street.

Dacre was paid £1.49 million for the year ending Sept. 30, 2007, according to the Daily Mail & General Trust's annual report, published Thursday. Most of Dacre's pay raise came from an increase in cash allowances, which reached £443,000 in 2007, more than double the £204,000 he received the previous year.

Also an executive board director at DMGT, the Mail's parent company, Dacre collected a payment instead of staying in the company's senior executive pension fund. He also was given an allowance, because the company did not have to provide accommodation for him in central London, MediaGuardian reported.

Dacre's baseline salary reached £1,034,000, passing £1 million for the first time by raising 5 percent from last year, making it the highest on the board. He also received £17,000 in benefits, which include company contributions to medical insurance, the taxable value of company cars and fuel allowances, according to MediaGuardian.

DMGT company executives have also allowed Dacre to retain his two-year rolling contract, which conflicts with city guidelines on corporate governance. He has been the Mail's editor since 1992, and the editor-in-chief of of Associated Newspapers, DMGT's national division, which owns the London Evening Standard, the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

“Mr. Dacre has a rolling two-year contract which the (remuneration) committee considers wholly appropriate for his particular responsibilities and for the industry in which he works,” DMGT said in a statement defending the contract, according to MediaGuardian. “The committee differentiates between what might be termed 'corporate executives' and 'media executives' whom it wishes to tie into the group and prevent from working for competitors. Mr Dacre is a media executive.”

The annual report also showed Dacre to be the third-highest paid director on the company's board in 2007, behind Padraic Fallon, chairman of Euromoney Institutional Investor, and Charles Sinclair, the current chief executive.

Fallon earned just over £4 million in 2007, £3.75 of which came from a share in Euromoney's pre-tax profit. Sinclair made a total of £1.91 million in 2007, a 39 percent increase from 2006, due to a £514,000 bonus, cash allowances of £373,000 and a £996,000 salary.