It's no surprise to anyone who pays attention that CEO pay continues to climb to the stratosphere and beyond.  Still, investigations by the New York Times and LA Times show some leaders of media firms are getting enormous paydays, even as their stock prices decline, and their companies' futures become clouded by the changing media landscape.

ITEM: Discovery CEO David Zaslav took in $156 million in 2014.  By comparison, Jamie Dimon, head of the country's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, was paid $20 million. Discovery stock holders have watched the value of their shares decline by 23% over the last year.

ITEM: CBS honcho Leslie Moonves actually took a pay cut last year, receiving about $57 million in compensation. That was about $8 million less than he took in the year before. Revenues at the Tiffany network have been flat.

ITEM: Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, the world's largest firm when measured by market capitalization, made less than 1/10th of what Moonves made at CBS.  

ITEM: The highest paid female executives in media companies lag well behind their male counterparts. Sony's former motion picture chair, Amy Pascal, earned about $3 million last year. Mindy Grossman, who runs the very successful shopping network, HSN, took in about $5 million.

On the Lot is our weekly look at the business of entertainment.