NZer sent to salvage Murdoch's UK operation

Former New Zealand journalist Tom Mockridge -- who once headed newspaper and television operations in his home country -- has been named the new chief executive of News International in Britain.

Mockridge, 55, has taken over following the resignation of Rebekah Brooks in the wake of the News of The World phone-hacking scandal.

He has joined the company from Sky Italia where he has been chief executive Officer since it launched in 2003.

He was also chief executive (European television) of News Corporation, overseeing News Corporation's television operations in Europe, outside of the UK.

Before joining Sky Italia, Mockridge was chief executive of the publicly-listed New Zealand company, Independent Newspapers -- which used to own the Dominion-Post newspaper and provincial papers now in the Fairfax stable -- and chairman of Sky New Zealand. In 2001 he replaced Rick Neville, who was appointed acting chief executive on the death of Mike Robson.

Mockridge started his journalism career on the Taranaki Daily News in 1977 before joining the Sydney Morning Herald in 1980. He subsequently worked for Australia's former Labor prime minister Paul Keating before joining News Ltd in 1991.

At News Ltd, he worked in various roles including at Ansett Airlines before he was appointed to head Foxtel, the pay television joint venture with Telstra, in 1997.

He was an executive with News Corp's Asian subsidiary Star TV, and was a director of News Limited from 1995, Sky TV from 1998 and INL from 2000 before heading INL.

He was reported to have started on a salary of nearly $NZ1 million in the role, and with wife Jacquie paid $4 million for an award-winning house in Devonport on Auckland's North Shore.

He also spent three years as chief executive of Foxtel, News Corporation's Australian pay TV joint venture.

Mockridge is still a non-executive director of BSkyB and a member of the Supervisory Board of Sky Deutschland.

James Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer and chairman and chief executive (international) at News Corporation, said the New Zealander was "an outstanding executive with unrivalled experience across our journalism and television businesses".

"He has proven himself to be a very effective operator in his time at Sky Italia. Under his leadership, Sky has grown to become one of the world's most successful pay TV businesses, reaching close to 5 million homes and launching channels like TG24 which has set a new standard for independent journalism in Italy.

"I believe that Tom is the best person to move the company forward to a brighter future".

News Corporation had total assets as of March 31, 2011 of approximately $US60 billion and total annual revenues of approximately $US33 billion.

Its six key industry segments, including cable network programming; filmed entertainment; television; direct broadcast satellite television; and publishing are based mainly in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Latin America.