APN has appointed long-time director Peter Cosgrove as chairman a day after the embattled media group lost its chief executive and most of its board in a showdown with its two largest investors over a proposed capital raising. Mr Cosgrove, who has been a director for more than nine years, has strong ties to APN’s largest shareholder Independent News & Media. The company is still without a CEO following the resignation of Brett Chenoweth, but speculation has grown that APN director Vincent Crowley – currently chief executive of INM – will return to APN as chief executive after more than a decade’s absence. APN shares were pummelled on Tuesday with the stock down as much as 15 per cent to a low of 25.5¢