Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder recently conducted a study that found press coverage of executive compensation may be one of the reasons it is gaining speed. The researchers started with the theory that the more attention a CEO received in the media, the greater the variable compensation - that is, all compensation other than their salary.

"Our findings suggest that the press appears to contribute to high CEO pay, which is ironic given some journalists' concerns about outsized CEO compensation," said Markus Fitza and associate professors Mathew Haward and Kai Larsen in a recent paper.

The researchers examined more than 1,500 companies and CEOs from 1997 to 2005 and how often they appeared in Business Week, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other major national business publications. They found that each major business news publication increased a CEO's variable compensation by more than $650,000. More, a picture in one of these publications increased it $1.1 million!