Pages from Teen Mania's tax return, for the year ending August 2004

Salary information of 'key employees' is on page 4 of the return

With all the complaining Ron Luce has been doing lately from the stage of the "BattleCry" stadium events, about how the media and advertisers are working to make money from teenagers, we think it's fair to take a close look at the salaries that are paid to Teen Mania's founder and other executives. Now that he's saying things like, "you don't want to be manipulated by a bunch of old people making money off destroying you," it's fair to look at how he, and others in his organization, make money off teenagers.

This kind of data can be found in the IRS Form 990 tax return filed by non-profit organizations, which is available for public inspection and can easily be retrieved through websites like that of Guidestar.

Non-profit organizations are required to report the salaries of leaders and "key employees" on the fourth page of the return. Teen Mania reported that, for the year that ended in August 2004, Ron and Katie Luce, combined, were paid $162,000, and the then-Chief Operating Officer, Rick Brenner was paid $180,455. The year Brenner was paid that sum, he was about fifty years old.

Update: In the first full year of the "BattleCry" Campaign - the year that ended August 2006 - Ron and Katie Luce's combined salary rose to $183,500. Teen Mania's highest-paid employee, Doug Rittenhouse, made less than half that amount.