Tim Montgomerie | MediaGuardian 100 2012 (original) (raw)

Job: editor, ConservativeHome
Age: 42
Industry: digital media
New entry

Tim Montgomerie earns his place in the MediaGuardian 100 because his site, owned by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft, is "where the Tory party factions tell each other what they think", according to our panel.

One recent scoop revealed that Boris Johnson is now the Conservative grassroots members' favourite to be Tory leader after David Cameron.

What distinguishes the editor of ConservativeHome from his political blogging rivals isn't the fact that he recently had a fallout with the Daily Telegraph. It's more the way he dealt with the row, quitting his Sunday Telegraph column in disgust at what he called the "shitbagging" which he claimed had its origins in his criticisms of editor Tony Gallagher's choice of front-page lead.

Montgomerie, who worked briefly for Ian Duncan Smith when he was Conservative leader, is also a columnist for the Times.