Mark Hollinshead leaves newspapers for events firm

NEWSPAPER executive Mark Hollinshead, the former managing director of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail in Scotland, is quitting his role at Trinity Mirror to take up the top job at the company behind events including the Great North Run.
Nova was founded in 1988 by former Olympic medallist Brendan Foster and is now involved in running, swimming and cycling events in the UK and overseas. Picture: TSPLNova was founded in 1988 by former Olympic medallist Brendan Foster and is now involved in running, swimming and cycling events in the UK and overseas. Picture: TSPL
Nova was founded in 1988 by former Olympic medallist Brendan Foster and is now involved in running, swimming and cycling events in the UK and overseas. Picture: TSPL

Hollinshead, who received a £761,000 pay package last year as Trinity Mirror’s chief operating officer, is taking up the post as group chief executive of sports marketing and events company Nova International, where he has been a non-executive director since 2012.

It is expected he will leave Trinity Mirror and take up his new role at Newcastle-based Nova, which also has offices in Glasgow, in 2015.

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Hollinshead, a former chairman of Scottish Athletics, said: “I’ve had a great career at Trinity Mirror and worked with some of the best people in media. I’ll be sad to leave, but pleased I am doing so when the business is in such good shape.”

Trinity Mirror chief executive Simon Fox said Hollinshead would be “greatly missed. However, he is moving on to develop his career in sports marketing and mass-participation events, about which he is so passionate, and we wish him every success.”

Hollinshead was appointed chief operating officer in 2012 and had previously been managing director of the company’s nationals division, which included the Mirror and Sunday People.

He served as managing director of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail between 1998 and 2008 and had begun his media career working in advertising agencies.

Nova was founded in 1988 by former Olympic medallist Brendan Foster and is now involved in running, swimming and cycling events in the UK and overseas, including the Great Scottish Run, the biggest running event in Scotland.

Last month, Trinity Mirror said it expected its full-year results to be marginally ahead of expectations, enabling it to pay a dividend for the first time since 2008.

It said the pace of revenue decline had improved in the first six months of the year, down 
2.3 per cent compared with the 6 per cent fall it recorded in 2013.