Dan Hickey, the Telegraph Media Group executive who signed off on the deal to serialise Hilary Mantel's short story, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, has left the company.
As TMG's "general manager of lifestyle", he was on a contract rather than on staff. However, he has left despite his contract still having several months to run.
Hickey, an American, found himself embroiled in controversy last month when the Daily Telegraph's weekend editor, Ian MacGregor, opposed the serialisation on the grounds that it would upset readers.
Although TMG had paid a substantial, but unspecified, sum for the serial rights, it then decided not to run the agreed extract. The Guardian stepped in to do so instead.
Hickey was appointed in February this year by the Telegraph's editor-in-chief, Jason Seiken, as one of the key changes to his team, which was aimed at "driving the transformation of Telegraph Media Group".
In Seiken's email to staff about the changes, he said Hickey had "an impressive track record developing revenue-generating channel content", most notably as head of digital products at Meredith Corporation, a leading US media company with an audience of more than 90m women.
After that, he became senior vice president for digital products and marketing at a health start-up.
I understand from inside sources that Hickey had been commuting to TMG's office from Utah on a three-weekly basis and the situation no longer suited him or his family.
A company spokeswoman said: "TMG doesn't comment on departures."
