HOTLINE

Michael Maedel, the president and chief executive of J. Walter Thompson Europe, Middle East and Africa, said this week that the agency will appoint a UK chief executive, the successor to Stephen Carter who left for NTL, before Christmas: 'We have conducted a thorough search of the market internally and externally. There's a lot of idle chat and there's a lot of people who would like this job. But no amount of gossip will hasten the process.'