David Montgomery (6 November 1948, Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland) is a British newspaper editor, executive, proprietor and media investor.
Montgomery was born in Northern Ireland, and attended Down High School and Queen's University in Belfast where he studied history and politics and edited the student magazine The Gown.[1]
In 1973 he joined the staff on the Daily Mirror, one of the UK's large-circulation tabloids. He became chief sub-editor in 1978. two years later he moved over to the rival publication, The Sun.[1]
Montgomery was later editor of News of the World from 1985 to 1987. He then became director of News (UK) Limited, a subsidiary of News International owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
Between 1992 and 1999 he served as chief executive of Mirror Group plc—publishers of the Daily Mirror and other national titles and a range of regional titles—following the death of its previous owner Robert Maxwell in 1991. During his tenure as Mirror Group CEO Montgomery oversaw a number of changes, including taking a stake in The Independent and its sister-paper The Independent on Sunday.[1]
Early in 1999 Montgomery stepped down from the Mirror Group CEO role after some well-publicised running disagreements with the boardroom and the non-executive chairman Sir Victor Blank, and after a period for the company described by some commentators as "crisis-hit".[2]
In 2000 Montgomery founded Mecom Group, a London-based investment company that would specialise in mergers and acquisitions of newspaper and media companies in continental Europe. Mecom embarked on a series of European magazine and newspaper acquisition deals, including the 2005 purchase of Berliner Verlag, publisher of Berliner Zeitung and Berliner Kurier. The acquisition was made in partnership with the American private equity firm and media broker Veronis Suhler Stevenson, part-financed with credit loans. Montgomery and his equity partners thereby became the first foreign owners of a German publishing group.[3] The sale generated a degree of controversy among some German media observers, with a number of journalists and staff at Berliner Verlag's titles protesting the sale and voicing concerns over the direction the new shareholders would take the publications.[4]
| Media offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Nicholas Lloyd |
Editor of the News of the World 1985–1987 |
Succeeded by Wendy Henry |
| Preceded by Dennis Hackett |
Editor of Today 1987–1991 |
Succeeded by Martin Dunn |