Media Headliner: Cocky, candid, cool - Associated's digital doyen.(AND Group PLC's Andy Hart management techniques)

Ian Darby meets Andy Hart, the managing director at AND, whose swelling revenues and portfolio are outstripping its rivals'.

You'd struggle to describe Andy Hart as modest or retiring. On being told that we want to profile him, the excuse being a tie-up between Associated Newspapers and Microsoft to produce new digital versions of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, he replies: 'It's about time, isn't it?'

But then, perhaps he has a point. Associated Northcliffe Digital, of which Hart is the managing director, has become a very successful operation. Three years ago, Associated's digital operations had five sites and revenues of pounds 6 million, now it has 103 sites, pounds 90 million in revenues and an operating profit of pounds 13 million (not including recent acquisitions). It employs 700 people.

Associated's parent company, the Daily Mail & General Trust, has invested pounds 155 million in acquiring and launching 'pure play' digital start-ups. Associated insiders say the figure is closer to half a billion when you take into account its newspaper websites and other 'magazine-style' online content, such as thisismoney.co.uk.

Hart is the man entrusted by the DMGT chairman, Lord Rothermere, to deliver on digital. He seems quick-witted and deeply analytical Described by colleagues as 'inspiring and fast-thinking', one Associated source says: 'The chairman respects him a lot, and he's a guy who has been very refreshing for the business. He's learnt a lot on the hoof, but he's been brilliant.'

Accused by some of displaying occasional touches of arrogance, he comes across as a cultured and witty man. Self-assured perhaps, rather than arrogant. He says of his approach: 'It's too easy to get cooped up in your ivory tower. The world is changing all the time and I've reached an age where I can't trust my instincts any more about how consumers behave; I've got to get out there and meet people.'

Hart joined Associated having gained online experience at AskJeeves, where he was appointed as the UK chief executive in 2000 after 18 months as the managing director of Sunday Business. He spent just a year in the AskJeeves role, and then a similar period of time at Diageo, where he was the global chief executive of its short-lived Translucis plasma-screens-in-bars business.