Some have given an outside chance to Mike Clasper an ITV non-executive director who was previously chief executive of

Some have given an outside chance to Mike Clasper, an ITV non-executive director who was previously chief executive of BAA.. The fallout from the Middle East conflict has landed in Edinburgh, threatening to coat this year’s film festival in a thick dust of controversy. Mr Carter, 42, has just stepped down as chief executive of media regulator Ofcom He was previously managing director of NTL. Faces serious charges of having a conflict of interest – much of the job of an ITV chief executive is to lobby Ofcom.* THE REST OF THE PACK: The ITV board met yesterday to consider the departure of the chief executive, Charles Allen He is expected to be in place until a successor is found. ITV will appoint headhunters, although there is an obvious list of excellent candidates. Among those who stand a good chance, if interested in the job, would be Tony Ball, the combative former chief executive of Sky. Mr Duncan, 44, has put in place a convincing strategic direction for the broadcaster and a successful multichannel and mobile/internet business.

Was in marketing at Unilever before joining the BBC in 2001.STEPHEN CARTER: Considered by some to have the perfect CV for the job. Mr Dyke, 59, had a previous career at ITV franchise companies.ANDY DUNCAN: Chief executive of Channel 4 since July 2004, he has done a remarkable job there. Highly rated, although she has never been a programme maker.GREG DYKE: Former director general of the BBC certainly has the credentials to lead ITV but his chances have been damaged by leading a bitter, shambolic bid for the company. For traditional consumer media, the experience is expensive – News Corp paid $580m (£300m) for social networking site MySpace – with highly uncertain returns.The excitement in the consumer media world today is all on the internet, from the launch of new bands to globally popular blogs.

The difficulty comes in finding synergies between these online activities and the traditional media business – usually it is simply one of promotional power – and in creating a viable business model from the internet.Runners and riders to succeed Charles Allen at ITVDAWN AIREY: The 45-year-old has been head of content in the tough world of BSkyB since 2003 Previously she was chief executive of Channel Five. Yet the likes of Trinity Mirror and DMGT maintain there is no evidence of advertising migrating from newspapers to the web – which raises the question of why they are spending tens of millions buying these sites up.Specialist media businesses such as Reed Elsevier have been able to flourish in the digital world. A case in point is the acquisition by US newspaper group EW Scripps, earlier this year, of USwitch, which compares the prices of home services such as electricity supply and telephony in the UK, for an amazing £210m. Yesterday, SMG made a similar move, with the purchase of price comparison website Peopleschampion .Regional newspaper publishers have pulled off a string of deals to acquire classified advertising sites. This is what he terms “maintenance” capital expenditure – that is, an attempt just to try to preserve historical revenues It is not a growth strategy. Often these purchases have lacked coherence or have been pulled off on terms that demonstrate “desperation”.Mr Beilby adds: “The impulse for traditional media companies to buy internet communities and e-commerce sites appears as implicit recognition that the acquiring traditional media companies lack the expertise to build their own businesses and that their own brands are not readily transferable online.”Some media companies have decided they must enter new markets because their core activities are not capable of revival. Tinkering at the edges just ain’t going to work.”ITV has launched a series of digital channels – which arguably counts as new media in the television sector – but its online strategy seems to be pinned on one bizarre acquisition, of the networking website Friends Reunited, for £120m.Mr Beilby says the advent of new media has meant that media companies have had to increase rapidly the level of investment, mostly to buy existing online operators.