ABC managing director Mark Scott has apologised to staff over the release of individual pay details by The Australian, calling the figures "wrong and out-of-date", and vowing to investigate how the newspaper obtained the information.

"First and foremost, I want to apologise that information like this has not been securely managed," he said in an email to staff.

"Staff are entitled to be concerned and upset.

"I have asked for a full and complete investigation about how this highly confidential material was accessed."

The Australian this morning published an article focusing on the salaries of major ABC identities such as Tony Jones and Leigh Sales, as well those of senior managers.

It also published a list identifying the top 100 salaries, ranging from $678,940 to $171,041, saying the newspaper has obtained documents containing a breakdown of the amount spent in 2011-12 on 5,511 ABC employees.

The article compares salaries across different states and programs, as well as publishing several salaries of staff earning well below the $171,000 mark.

Mr Scott says it is unfair that ABC staff alone should have their salaries revealed, while other media companies have no such requirement, and doing so puts the corporation at a disadvantage.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 10 minutes 13 seconds 10 m Mark Scott speaks with ABC 774's Jon Faine Download 4.7 MB

"The matter of whether ABC staff salaries should be publicly disclosed was subject to debate and a special 'in-camera' hearing by a Senate Committee some years ago," he said in the email.

"Whilst the public might be curious about what particular on-air talent earn, the ABC operates in a highly competitive media environment.

"For the ABC to be the only media organisation where salaries are revealed puts us at a significant disadvantage to our competitors."

He told ABC 774's Jon Faine the figures show in general that high-profile staff are not overpaid compared to their commercial counterparts, and the release will be seized on by competitors keen to lure away ABC talent.

"Today, most private sector media executives looking down that list will not believe the salary rates of the ABC compared to what's paid in commercial radio and television-land," Mr Scott said.

"I'm concerned that this gives people like David Gyngell a list, a target, and it hurts the ABC's ability to attract and retain talent."

According to today's article Mr Scott earns $678,940 per annum, while media website Mumbrella reports his counterpart at Channel 7 earns $2.6 million, and Nine CEO David Gyngell "looks set to pocket a package of around $10m a year".

News Corp has defended the release, with a spokesman saying that as the ABC is a publicly-funded institution, the public is entitled to know details of individual salaries.

But the president of Community and Public Sector Union, which represents ABC staff, says the release is motivated by commercial interests, and News Corp is attempting to reduce the ABC's funding.

"News Corp of course is trying to make people pay for online content so there's a clear commercial interest here for the ABC's competitors to try to reduce ABC's level of funding," Michael Tull said.

"The only thing that really comes out of the disclosures is the reality that the ABC is paying its top online talent much less than they could earn in a commercial world."