Watson's Mirror task far from elementary: Ellis Watson has been given the unenviable task of reviving the Mirror Group's fortunes. Few doubt his marketing abilities, but will these cross over into the boardroom?

Marketing Week, July, 2004 by Branwell Johnson

Media-savvy executives are well aware that comments appearing in print can come back and bite you on the behind. But that has not been the case for Ellis Watson, who in 1998, when he was marketing director of The Sun and News of the World, said: "I'm not general manager material."

Yet a stint in that role at rival Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) has not prevented the flamboyant and energetic Watson from climbing the corporate pole even higher to the role of managing director at Trinity Mirror's national newspaper arm.

But, while praised as a talented marketer who is at home in the rough and tumble of the world of national newspapers, observers wonder if Watson will be able to halt the Daily Mirror's circulation decline now that he is responsible for editorial...