Belfast International Homecoming 2024

Spirit of the Diaspora Recipient

David Montgomery, Executive Chairman at National world

David John Montgomery has a long history in the newspaper industry. Most recently, he was chief executive of Local World, an aggregator in the regional news area which was acquired by Reach (formerly Trinity Mirror) in 2015. Local World had been formed in 2013 by a merger of regional media companies of DMGT and the Yattendon Group, publishing around 100 regional newspaper titles and associated websites.

David served as an editor of News of the World and as an editor and managing director of Today newspaper. He founded Mecom Group in 2000 and served as its chief executive until January 2011. At Mecom Group, he worked on several acquisitions to establish one of the leading European publishing and content businesses, delivered substantial cost savings and began to develop a new, flexible operating model fit to take commercial advantage of on-going changes in consumer behaviour, which saw particular success at Edda Media in Norway.

Prior to Mecom, David was chief executive officer of Mirror Group from 1992 to 1999, where he oversaw substantial restructuring and acquisitions culminating in its merger with Trinity to become Trinity Mirror.

David served as a director at the Press Association from 1996 to 1999, RSDB (one of Europe’s largest print businesses) from 2006 to 2009, Royal Wegener (a large Dutch news publisher) from 2007 to 2011, and Scottish Television from 1994 to 1998. He graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast in History and Politics.

David is chairman of Local TV, a network of eight public service broadcasting city channels.