The chief executive of the Daily Mail publisher has resigned and is to be replaced by its chair Lord Rothermere, great-grandson of the newspaper’s founder, in a move that cements direct family control of the UK media business.
Paul Zwillenberg, who has run Daily Mail and General Trust since 2016, is to step down from the board less than a year after the Rothermeres bought the company in a deal worth about £2.4bn. The former management consultant, who has 30 years’ experience in media and technology, plans to stay on as an adviser following his departure at the end of the month.
Jonathan Harmsworth, the fourth Viscount Rothermere, will take day-to-day charge as chief executive, as well as leading the board. Such an arrangement is frowned upon for listed companies under the UK’s corporate governance code, which calls for the chair and chief executive positions to be held by different individuals.
However, such restrictions no longer apply to DMGT after the Rothermere family took the company private. DMGT was delisted from the London Stock Exchange in January after 90 years as a public company, despite opposition from some prominent institutional investors who were unhappy about the terms.
Harmsworth has chaired DMGT since 1998 when he became patriarch of the family dynasty following the death of his father, who was regarded as among Britain’s most successful postwar press barons.
He has taken a series of strategic decisions for the group, including establishing the commuter free sheet Metro, yet his appointment as chief executive is the latest sign that he is determined to make his mark on the company.
His appointment raises immediate questions about his strategy for DMGT, including the future of assets in sectors outside consumer media — including an events and exhibitions business — that the group still holds.
Zwillenberg had co-ordinated a reorganisation of DMGT through a series of deals, including disposals of insurance risk modelling business RMS, education operation Hobsons and energy data specialist Genscape.
As part of its wider refocus on consumer media, DMGT under Zwillenberg also distributed its stake in financial publisher Euromoney to shareholders and acquired the i newspaper as well as New Scientist magazine.
The company was also an early investor in Cazoo, and its interest in the online car dealer helped the Rothermeres seal their takeover. DMGT shareholders were pledged shares in the New York-listed company under the complex terms of the family’s offer. Cazoo shares have since slumped, down 90 per cent this year.
Harmsworth did not provide details of his plans on Thursday, although he said in a memo to staff that he would be “meeting with our senior leaders to discuss next steps and new ways of working”.
The management change follows a series of job moves last year in the flagship publications’ editorial leadership. Paul Dacre, the veteran tabloid editor, was installed as editor-in-chief of the Mail, Britain’s best-selling daily newspaper, and broader portfolio of consumer publications.
In his memo, Rothermere added: “I am immensely grateful to Paul for everything that he has done over the past six-and-a-half years.”
Zwillenberg said in his own note that “the time is right to step down”.
“An inevitable consequence of the strategy we put in place six-and-a-half years ago, if it was successful, was that I would work myself out
of a job,” he said.
