(Bloomberg) — Telegraph Media Group Deputy Chairman Guy Black was approached to apply as head of U.K. media regulator Ofcom, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s favored candidate and former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre dropped out, according to people familiar with the matter.
Black declined to enter the race, said the people, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. He represents the ruling Conservative Party in the U.K.’s upper legislative chamber, the House of Lords. It’s the government’s second attempt to fill the influential role, which will hold sway over regulating U.K. broadcasting, telecommunications and the Internet.
Black declined to comment. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which is overseeing the process, and the government’s headhunters for the process, Saxton Bampfylde, declined to comment.
Dacre was personally asked by Johnson to apply for the role, with the promise he could appoint his own chief executive, Dacre recently wrote in The Spectator magazine after withdrawing from the increasingly controversial contest. The government then extended the deadline for applications by two weeks to Dec. 13.
The original search began in February, but was restarted after an independent panel found Dacre had no chance of getting the job. The Commissioner for Public Appointments said only nine people had applied, and that press reports had “overshadowed” the original competition.
A fellow Conservative Lord, former culture minister Ed Vaizey, has publicly expressed his interest in the role. Bloomberg first reported he’d applied for the job in April.
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