McComb Quits SCMP

As reported recently, Malcolm in the Muddle, as he's known from Quarry Bay to Tai Po, is leaving the SCMP (the newspaper with the world's highest most bought/least read ratio) for pastures new.

Given that Malcolm is an advertising man, it's odds on that he'll be returning to the magical world of advertising, where, as Roger Thornhill once put it so succinctly, there are no lies, just expedient exaggerations. So, he's unlikely to encounter too much culture shock when he finally clears his desk in the new year.

"I added value to the company and now it's time for me to move on," was Malcolm's verdict on his 15 months as Director of Marketing & Communications in an article for which Roger Thornhill himself could have supplied the headline, "SCMP hit by talent drain".

In another interview, Malcolm gives us a glimpse of his humbler, more vulnerable side when he admits that his "background, talent, skills and interest are not in sync with what the company focuses on in the immediate term".

A graduate of Tragos Bonnage Wiesendanger Ajroldi, better known – for understandable reasons – as TBWA, Malcolm's parting shot is an attempt to beef up the Classified Post, which has been looking very sorry for itself of late with about as much body to it as Shu Qi.

But unlike the invitation to join the SCMP Readers Panel last December, which came with promises of free wine, musical tickets, restaurant vouchers and spa coupons, this time the carrot for joining the Classified Post Discussion Panel is the chance to "let your voice be heard" on their "FREE and IMPORTANT" panel (capitals in the original).

You know what they say, Malcolm. Pay carrots, get donkeys.