Associated Appoints Beatty As New Managing Director
Associated Newspapers has announced the appointment of Kevin Beatty as its new managing director, replacing Murdoch MacLennan, who is leaving the company to become chief executive of the rival Telegraph Group.
Beatty, who is currently managing director of Northcliffe Newspapers Group, is a widely respected newspaper executive with a significant amount of industry experience. As well as holding senior positions at both the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard, he was also instrumental in the launch of the Metro freesheet in 1999.
Beatty will be succeeded at Northcliffe Newspapers by Michael Pelosi, the current deputy managing director, who has been at the group for the last sixteen years. Pelosi started as finance director and was promoted to deputy managing director in 1995. He has also played a key role in the development of Northcliffe’s overseas interests and restructuring the group’s regional printing centres into the Northcliffe Press.
Commenting on the appointments, Lord Rothermere, chairman of the Daily Mail & General Trust, said: “I am delighted to make these two appointments from within the Group. They illustrate the depth and strength of our management and I am more than confident that our newspapers will continue to prosper under their leadership.”
The role of managing director became vacant just days ago, after it was revealed that the Barclay brothers had persuaded MacLennan to turn his back on the position he had held for the last ten years, to join the new Telegraph board in an appointment that has been closely guarded for some weeks (see Telegraph Raids Rival Associated For New Chief Executive).
As chief executive of The Telegraph Group, MacLennan is expected to oversee a process of rationalisation at the Daily and Sunday Telegraph in a move that looks likely to include a significant number of job losses at the broadsheet titles.
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