To paraphrase Lady Bracknell, to leave one job after eight days looks like a misfortune. To leave a second after eight months looks like - well, what does it look like?
Dawn Airey's defection from ITV to return to head up Channel Five, a year after she gave up on the ill-starred start-up Iostar, is a puzzling development.
Make no mistake: this was a total surprise, first to ITV, then to Five when ITV announced it with more than a trace of anger in its statement. ITV made a point of mentioning the "extended" gardening leave it expects Airey to take and Michael Grade made a point of not mentioning her at all. Certainly no platitudes about what she'd achieved since joining in September.
As Maggie Brown argues, of all Grade's signings, Airey had been given the key job in his content-led turnaround strategy, if not perhaps the starriest role in the ITV firmament. It was an opportunity to crack something big that could have handed her the keys to Grade's office three years down the line.
But Maggie points to the inherent tension between ITV's production business and its commissioners on the broadcasting side, when a technically unattainable target for ITV-made programmes on ITV1 has been set. She also reminds us that Airey joined ITV "on the rebound". Maybe as a natural channel boss she was uncomfortable in the world of content and production.
Still, why go to Five, a much smaller beast than ITV, to do a job she left five years ago? As one analyst said to me, "Why leave the Premier League for the Championship?"
One obvious answer is that Five's owner, RTL Group, is lining up a bid for ITV. But there are reasons to doubt that, and possibly Airey will just be heading a new big push from Five to raise its profile.
