The Sunday Times reported yesterday that a leading candidate to replace David Montgomery as chief executive of Mecom is Mark Hollinshead.
I laughed aloud when I read that. Hollinshead's record as a Trinity Mirror executive - in Scotland and London - has been as a cost-cutter without an ounce of editorial savvy. In other words, he is a mini-Monty.
What on earth can be the point of the Mecom shareholders ousting one axeman for another. Indeed, at least Monty has a feel for the editorial process.
If I was working on one of the 300 newspapers published by Mecom - in Norway, Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands - I'd be very concerned about the possible appointment of Hollinshead.
He is responsible for much of the cutting at the Mirror titles that will surely result in them declining into oblivion before we reach 2015.
I laughed again when I reached the final sentence of the Sunday Times piece, which speculated that "the main hurdle" to Hollinshead taking up the Mecom post "is his lack of business experience in the Netherlands".
Should that not have read "a lack of business experience beyond slashing costs and managing decline while earning himself a fortune"?
