Emap stepping up hunt for new chief

MEDIA group Emap is understood to have started its search for a new chief executive to replace Robin Miller, the former chairman who took on the role after Kevin Hand was forced to quit last year.

The process has been given added urgency by the appointment last week of Hand as special adviser to Emap's main rival in France, Hachette. Hand is set to work on magazine launches in Britain and France, both major markets for Emap, best known for publishing FHM magazine.

Hand took the blame for Emap's disastrous foray into the US, which resulted in the company selling its Petersen division to Primedia for £366 million - considerably less than the £920 million Emap paid for it two years earlier.

When Hand quit last July, Miller became group chief executive. He is scheduled to remain so until July 2003, and though he is adamant that he is not merely keeping the seat warm, it is thought that the Emap board would prefer a successor to be in place sooner rather than later.