ACP boss Phil Scott departs
ACP Magazines boss Phil Scott is to leave the company. He will be replaced by the company’s chief financial officer Matt Stanton.
The announcement:
ACP Magazines Managing Director Phil Scott has announced he will step down at the end of 2011.
“Now is the right time for me, personally and professionally, to bring to a close my 10 years of full-time involvement in the business and a career in journalism spanning nearly 36 years in total.”
Before we all rush into “Did he jump or was he pushed?” territory, as somebody who has worked with ‘Scotty’ let me say that he’s as brilliant a journalist and editor as he was a sharp but ruthless publisher.
Phil is certain to have gotten more than a few people offside at ACP, including ex-editors by his hand and deputies who never got the nod to take that final step up
Is his time up because he failed to position ACP Magazines for the public listing which the VC vultures who now run ACP wanted? If so, they’re losing one of the few blokes who can successfully straddle editorial, advertising AND management.
(PS The bit about ex-editors doesn’t mean they had anything to do with his demise, that was just a fragment of thought I didn’t finish. We might see comments posted by some people with an axe to grind against Phil Scott but take them with a grain of salt, is what I was going to say)
Wow, so much for that whole ‘after the period of turmoil, I’m here to lead ACP to victory with a stable management team’ spiel he so beautifully delivered about 12 months ago. I agree with Jack – he was one of the few who could successfully work across all facets of the business. But I guess axing people after they fail to ‘save the business’ is the ACP way – an axe Phil himself wielded on many who went before him. Good luck to Matt Stanton – do we take bets yet on how long it will be before Matt goes and Gerry Reynolds takes over?