Media Perspective: It will take all Emin's passion to breathe life into the Mirror.(David Emin)

What passes for life in the Daily Mirror now seems to reside in its award-winning sports pages. Alternatively, it's in the increasingly odd ramblings of its Scouse columnist Brian Reade.

Otherwise, the once great red-top reads like a duller version of The Independent compressed with The Beano.

So if you think that David Emin, the News Group advertising director, has his work cut out in taking the equivalent job at Mirror Group Newspapers, you're probably right.

Emin replaces Dominic Carter who, in a reverse move, has switched to Emin's current employer, News International, as the trading director of Times Newspapers.

As one press director puts it: 'Emin will find it very very different If you talk to any client about knocking The Sun off a schedule it's not going to happen, but knocking the Mirror off is an easier conversation.'

Not that News International, Emin's employer for the past 12 years, has had it easy of late. Reports suggest that advertising at The Sun fell by more than 7 per cent last month, while revenues at News of the World were flat.

There are undoubted attractions surrounding the Mirror job - not least the possible size of Emin's new package, which is likely to dwarf his previous one.