The chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper company is expected to step aside later this year, leaving the way open for a return of Rebekah Brooks after her acquittal of phone-hacking charges.
Mike Darcey, who joined News UK, formerly News International, from BSkyB, is a former economist who has been described as “technocratic” and unfamiliar with the newspaper business, which is still the passion of 84-year-old Murdoch.
Brooks, meanwhile, is seen increasingly around the London Bridge offices of the Sun and the Times. She spent much of last week alongside the media mogul and Robert Thomson, the chief executive of Murdoch’s global newspaper business, while they held meetings in the group’s London offices.
A recent presentation about News UK’s digital future is understood to have helped convince Murdoch that Brooks should return to a senior management role at the newspaper group although the title has yet to be agreed.
Most people with knowledge of the business believe a return as chief executive would be “untenable” for the former editor of the Sun and the News of the World given the intensity of the recent scandal.
However, Murdoch remains to be convinced that it is a bad idea and some believe Brooks herself may still be persuaded that a return is feasible. Talks over a new role for her have been going on for some time but are thought to be coming to a head now: the Guardian first reported that Brooks was in talks with her mentor last autumn.
Murdoch is unlikely to heed any warnings, although Brooks may be offered another senior role rather than her old job. He is “nothing if not loyal” said one former associate. “He doesn’t walk away from people when they get into trouble. Given everything that has happened, you could argue that she deserves it.”
Brooks resigned from her job as chief executive of News International at the height of the phone-hacking scandal in the summer of 2011. She was then tried and acquitted on phone-hacking charges in 2014, leaving her to work out how to restart her career.
Under the terms of the exit agreement reached when she left the company, in which she received £16.1m in compensation for future loss of earnings, Brooks is understood to have been promised a role that was “commensurate” with her former job as chief executive if she were to be found innocent.
The appointment of Brooks as chief executive or to another top job would be a strong signal that Murdoch considers the phone-hacking scandal to be over.
However, several reporters also acquitted of offering illegal payments to public officials are still waiting to hear whether they will be offered their jobs back, and the final criminal phone-hacking trial involving a former NoW journalist – deputy editor Neil Wallis – is still ongoing in London. There is also still the possibility, albeit slim, that the Crown Prosecution Service could issue corporate charges against News UK.
Several other roles have been mooted for Brooks, though the company downplayed suggestions that she would run Storyful, a Dublin-based social media news agency started by the former RTÉ current affairs presenter Mark Little, or manage the Sun’s digital operations.
Putting a former tabloid editor back in charge could help, given the fact that it is the Sun which is felt to be struggling in the Murdoch empire. TNL, the subsidiary responsible for the Times and its Sunday sister, posted a £1.7m operating profit for the year ending 30 June 2014, its first profitable year since 2001.
Darcey could return to a senior job at Sky. He spent 15 years with the satellite company, six as chief operating officer under James Murdoch and incumbent chief executive Jeremy Darroch, before replacing fellow New Zealander Tom Mockridge as chief executive at the end of 2012.
Darcey was an unusual choice to run News UK: the job was typically given to a former journalist. When Darcey was appointed, the company boasted of his digital broadcasting experience. “His broadcasting background will provide important leadership in the development of our already impressive suite of digital products at News International.”
No decision is likely to be announced until after the company’s financial year ends at the end of June.
News Corp declined to comment on Friday. One insider in London said that there were always rumours about senior executives, adding that Darcey was working as usual.
