Former News of the World editor David Montgomery has announced he will retire from Mecom, the European publishing group he founded in 2000, after coming under pressure from shareholders to quit.

According to a report by Reuters, current CEO Montgomery will leave the company – which owns more than 300 printed titles and 200 websites – in January in response to the concerns of shareholders who are “fed up with ongoing high debt levels and falling sales”.

Montgomery slashed costs and jobs as he sought to drive his local-newspaper businesses in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Poland into the digital age in the face of the industry’s worst-ever recession.

In a statement on Mecom’s website confirming Montgomery’s move, the chief executive was said to have the “complete confidence of the board”. It added that a search process will be conducted by the board to find his successor.