LONDON — Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World tabloid, resigned Friday as head of the British newspaper division of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, saying she had become a focal point of the scandal in a way that was jeopardizing the company.
“At News International we pride ourselves on setting the news agenda for the right reasons,” Brooks, one of Britain’s most influential female journalists, said in an internal memo released by the company. “Today we are leading the news for the wrong ones. The reputation of the company we love so much, as well as the press freedoms we value so highly, are all at risk.”
Rising to the title of chief executive of News Corp.’s British operations, Brooks has long been one of Murdoch’s favorites, a woman with trademark flaming red hair whom he once described as being like a “daughter” to him.
She headed News of the World from 2000 to 2003, a time when the paper allegedly routinely used illegal phone hacks to gather insider tidbits from both celebrities and average citizens, going as far as to interfere in a police investigation of a young girl who was kidnapped and killed in 2002.
Brooks is set to appear — along with Murdoch and his son, James Murdoch — before British parliamentarians on Tuesday for questioning about her knowledge of the case.
In previous testimony in 2003, she had admitted that News of the World journalists paid bribes to police to obtain information. But Brooks has denied knowledge of widespread phone hacking at the 168-year-old News of the World, which Murdoch closed last week to try to stem the crisis.
Prime Minister David Cameron — a personal friend of Brooks’s — and British opposition leader Ed Miliband had both called for her resignation, saying she should take responsibility at the very least for the poor handling of the scandal, in which Scotland Yard officials have called News Corp. officials uncooperative.
Brooks reportedly tried to tender her resignation last week, but Murdoch refused it. But amid reports that the Murdoch family is furious over the handling of the scandal, the resignation has now been accepted, the company said Friday.
Tom Mockridge, who previously headed News Corp.’s Sky Italia operation, will replace Brooks, the company said.
Brooks — known in London media circles as a fierce competitor who was both courted and feared by politicians and celebrities — conceded in her resignation statement that she has become a lightning rod for the company.
“I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis,” she said. “However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate.”