MEDIA: FORUM - New blood takes over newspaper groups.(a look at the changes in the newspaper groups in the United Kingdom)

Are we witnessing a generational change at the top of the national newspaper groups? Alasdair Reid investigates.

A couple of weeks back it was all change at The Daily Telegraph.

Last week it was the turn of Associated Newspapers. Mike Ironside, who has been the managing director of The Mail on Sunday for the past four years, resigned to make way for Stephen Miron.

Miron, who was previously the commercial director of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, returned to Associated last year to revamp Loot and take charge of Associated's new-media activities - but he is known to be highly regarded by senior management and further career progress was not entirely unexpected.

His appointment was not the first major change recently at The Mail on Sunday - back in the summer, it replaced its ad director, Sue Dear, with Simon Davies, who has been remodelling his team. Last year, Metro's former managing director, Mike Anderson, replaced Sally de la Bedoyere as the Evening Standard's managing director.

Changes at the Telegraph Group, announced a couple of weeks ago, were triggered by the retirement of Jeremy Deedes and the subsequent appointment of Hugo Drayton to the role of group managing director. There have been (albeit minor in comparison) changes at News International and Mirror Group Newspapers is in the middle of a period of transition under its new chief executive, Sly Bailey.

Are we going through a generational change in the upper echelons of the newspaper business? If so, why is it happening? Some might say that the recession appears to be drawing to an end and is being used as an excuse to do a bit of overdue tidying up. On the other hand, it could be part of a more fundamental desire to change the way that the medium is marketed, bought and sold.