INL mum on CEO

By Nick Smith

Friday 6th September 2002

More than a month after Independent Newspapers (INL) chief executive Tom Mockridge was summarily dispatched to Italy, the country's largest print publisher languishes without a boss.

But the publisher of Wellington's Dominion Post and Christchurch's Press is pushing ahead with its plans to form a pseudo news agency.

In the latest move to share resources among its 71 papers, INL is incorporating standalone publication InfoTech into the Dominion Post's Monday business pages.

This follows the appointment of a single editor to handle the business sections of the Press and the Dominion Post amid plans to share resources between the company's nine daily papers, two Sunday publications and 60 community newspapers.

Publishing managing director Rick Neville denied INL was establishing a news agency to rival NZPA but said the group would soon share news, sports and feature stories and pictures.

Mr Neville has overall responsibility for the magazine publishing group and is referring all comment over a replacement for Mr Mockridge to executive chairman Ken Cowley.

Despite repeated calls, Mr Cowley did not explain why INL had not appointed a replacement for Mr Mockridge.

In July, Mr Mockridge was personally tapped by media mogul Rupert Murdoch to head Italian pay television company Stream, with a replacement expected to be announced within weeks.

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