Drayton, who was only appointed to the managing director role a year ago, has lost his job along with finance director Niamh O'Donnell-Keenan. The decision follows the appointment over the weekend of John Allwood, former executive vice-president of Orange, as executive director of the Telegraph Group.
Allwood was the first major hiring by new chief executive MacLennan. MacLennan was lured from Associated Newspapers after the Barclay brothers' acquisition of the Telegraph, to replace Jeremy Deedes. He was group managing director at Associated for 10 years.
The decision to appoint Allwood so soon after MacLennan sparked rumours that the Barclay brothers may be planning to radically overhaul the company.
According to Telegraph sources, Drayton and O'Donnell-Keenan were unaware of Allwood's appointment until Monday morning. Insiders have suggested that the former Orange chief would have free rein on assessing the business of the group, possibly even taking on the managing director and finance director roles himself.
Allwood has a broad experience of the newspaper industry, including senior financial positions at News International, and he was also chief executive of the Mirror Group before it was taken over by Trinity.
It is thought that other changes are to be made at the group, including editorial moves at both the Daily and Sunday Telegraph where long talked of changes in editor could now happen.
Drayton, who joined the Telegraph in 1994, was formerly the managing director of Hollinger Telegraph New Media, and replaced the outgoing managing director, Jeremy Deedes, at the end of last year. Deedes planned to retire, but returned as interim chief executive in March 2004 to replace Dan Colson.
Prior to his role at Hollinger Telegraph New Media, Drayton was marketing and promotions director for the Telegraph Group. O'Donnell-Keenan previously worked at KPMG and in the shipping sector before joining the Telegraph in 1996. Both executives were members of the Telegraph board.
A Telegraph spokeswoman confirmed the exits of Drayton and O'Donnell-Keenan today, but declined to comment on any further redundancies or reasons for the decision.
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