Ousted Telegraph boss still has work there

Media baron Conrad Black, owner of the Daily Telegraph, today brushed aside allegations of impropriety that forced him out as chief executive of Hollinger International.

He said in Toronto that he had built the company up and still had a job there.

Reporters surrounded Black when he appeared at a bookstore to sign copies of his new biography of Franklin D Roosevelt.

The former Canadian citizen, now a British lord, said he was far from finished as a media mogul.

“I’ve given a new meaning to the term struggling author,” Lord Black quipped a day after stepping down as head of Chicago-based Hollinger amid revelations he and some associates collected millions of pounds in unauthorised fees.

“You take your lumps and move on,” he said, acknowledging he would have to sell “a lot of books” to repay the unauthorised fees.

He will officially retire on Friday but remain non-executive chairman of Hollinger to oversee a sale or other initiatives.

He also will continue as chairman of The Telegraph Group, a wholly owned Hollinger subsidiary, and as head of Hollinger Inc, the Toronto-based parent company of Hollinger International that owns the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph in London and The Jerusalem Post.

He called the reshuffle an agreement rather than a sanction, and noted he retained his Hollinger post because he still owned the biggest chunk of the company.