Business And Leadership: Donovan steps down as Irish Times MD

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Donovan steps down as Irish Times MD

07.02.2010
The Irish Times has announced the retirement of its managing director Maeve Donovan after eight years in that position and 32 years with the company.

In a statement, the company’s board said an immediate internal process will begin to select a successor.

David Went, chairman of the board, said the company had expanded its print and digital interests and developed a successful contract printing business under Donovan’s leadership. In addition, he said, the operations of the newspaper had been substantially restructured and this has positioned The Irish Times well in the current economic climate.

During her tenure as managing director, Donovan led several restructuring plans and the move from D’Olier Street to Tara Street. Over the last three or four years, the company purchased property portal MyHome.ie for €50m and the Gazette Group Newspapers for €5m, as well as stakes in entertainment.ie, The Gloss magazine, radio station 4FM and the Metro (now Metro Herald) freesheet.

Last year, a group of journalists at the Irish Times called on the board to urgently review what it described as a “flawed investment and diversification” strategy.

Donovan joined the Irish Times in 1978 from ICC Bank to work in telesales. She became head of advertising in 1989 and then progressed through the commercial side of the business, becoming sales and marketing manager in 1994 and commercial director in 1999.

She joined The Irish Times' board in 1997 and was appointed managing director in 2002. In 2008, she was appointed chair of National Newspapers in Ireland (NNI).

She has said that building a strong management team and working with it to both restore the newspaper to profitability in 2003 and build an increasingly diversified multimedia business have been among her main achievements at the helm.