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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Rebekah Brooks no longer Murdock CEO

The embattled CEO of Rupert Murdock’s British newspaper empire, Rebekah Brooks, has resigned in the midst of the fallout from the phone hacking scandal.

This creates a hiatus in a meteoric career. Red-haired Brooks, 43, started out as a humble 20-year-old secretary at the tabloid News of the World, was promoted to the editor’s chair in the year 2000. In 2009 she became chief executive of the entire UK newspaper operation. Now, she is looking for a job.

Prime Minister David Cameron led an outcry for her resignation, following allegations that the voicemails of murdered teenager Milly Dowler and of the families of certain dead soldiers had been hacked.

Murdock’s company, News International, which publishes The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times, closed down News of the World in a vain attempt to save Murdock’s bid for pay-TV giant BSkyB.

Brooks will be replaced by Tom Mockridge, CEO of Sky Italia, who faces an uphill battle, having been given the daunting brief of restoring the faith of shareholders in Murdock’s British newspaper empire. Meantime, the fallout is visible as far as stockmarkets downunder.

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