Moloney stands down at Emap

by Robin Parker, Media Week 17-May-07, 12:00

LONDON - Emap chief executive Tom Moloney has resigned, parting ways with the company after 26 years.

Non-executive chairman Alun Cathcart, who also chairs car rental company Avis Europe and logistics firm Palletways Group, will stand in as chief executive until a replacement is found.

The announcement comes ahead of Emap's full-year results, to be released on 22 May. They are expected to be in line with a trading update issued in March indicating that revenues would be 2% down, reflecting challenging market conditions for the group's men's lifestyle and motoring brands.

Moloney's departure, widely tipped but until now strongly denied by Emap, follows his recent restructure of Emap Consumer Media, in which publisher and ad director roles were axed to make way for new brand director positions.

The changes, drawn up after a review conducted by Boston Consulting, were intended to position the company to save £20m a year and resulted in 175 redundancies across the consumer division.

Moloney joined Emap in 1981, becoming group managing director of Emap Metro and Elan in 1989 and joining the board in 1995 before rising to group chief executive in 2003.