O'Brien to clean out INM stables
17 March 09

Denis O'Brien is to seek a major review at Independent News & Media, with a view to closing or selling off loss-making businesses.

The review will be one of the first priorities for O'Brien's three new representatives on the INM board, and for new chief executive Gavin O'Reilly. The latter will take over the role from his father Tony, who announced last Friday that he was to step down this May.

INM has already axed its editorial advisory board, which met several times a year and included the former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and other industry figures. The businesses likely to be jettisoned include the London Independent. However, the loss-making Sunday Tribune is not thought to be in the immediate line of fire. O'Brien is a former company secretary at the Tribune, a role that dates from his time working as assistant to the former Tribune investor Tony Ryan.

O'Brien's board appointees, Leslie Buckley, Lucy Gaffney and Paul Connolly, are expected to insist that at least one of them should be on the INM remuneration committee, as part of the board overhaul that will see a dozen INM directors leave the board in just six months. All three directors on the remuneration committee have left, or are set to leave, the board.

In 2007, 15 non-executive directors at INM shared €1.6 million, while six executive directors were paid more than €1 million each.