A report this morning by Fox News' Roger Friedman claims Capitol Music Group head Jason Flom and Capitol Records president Lee Trink will exit their roles at EMI and will not be replaced. The folks at Terra Firma, Friedman wrote, do not believe in label presidents...which means Coldplay will soon release the most important album of the Terra Firma/EMI era without anybody helming the ship. (Friedman is told all EMI labels will have "president of A&R" roles and heads of marketing, but no label presidents.)

Terra Firma has made some bold moves -- hiring Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka to its digital strategy team was an unconventional decision -- but this one is flat out suspect. The desired executive structure is not really the problem, it's the handling and timing of it. Not only is Hands & Co. toying with EMI's ability to sign and retain artists, it is revamping its organization chart at a precarious time. The company needs leadership at every level. This hardly seems like a time to experiment. But such is life on a private equity firm's accelerated timetable.