PROFILE:REBEKAH BROOKS'S place in UK journalism is assured, whatever the outcome of the phone-hacking furore. She is the first woman to edit two bestselling national tabloids and now runs the UK's largest news publisher.
Having decided at the age of 14 that she wanted to be a journalist, the then Rebekah Wade made a rapid ascent from provincial journalism to Fleet Street, moving from a position as editorial assistant — she has challenged the description of the job as "secretary" — to editor of the News of the Worldby 2000.
Three years later she became editor of the Sunand, six years after that, chief executive of News International, the parent of those titles as well as the Timesand the Sunday Times.
Brooks showed a ruthless determination in her roles, according to friends. She has never denied a story told by her then editor, Piers Morgan, at the News of the Worldthat she once dressed as a cleaner to infiltrate the offices of the Sunday Times, hid for two hours in a lavatory before emerging to take one of the first copies off the press so its sister paper could copy an exclusive.
Part of her success has been a networking ability that is second to none, a current colleague says. “Think of the best networker you know, multiply by 10 and that is Rebekah.”
“She could give masterclasses in working a room. She is also very intelligent and a brilliant instinctive tabloid journalist.” Another journalist who worked closely with her said: “Why has she got to the top? She is somebody who is incredibly charming if she needs to be and she has charmed one person more than any other and that is Rupert Murdoch.”
He added: “The reality is that she is not a journalist. She is a secretary that became chief executive of the company.”
A media executive who knows News Corp well, said she had “got Liz, James and Lachlan [Murdoch, Rupert’s children by his second marriage] completely on side”.
“She has charmed the back legs off every member of the Murdoch family and their other halves. Nobody quite understands that the link is like an umbilical cord.”
Ms Brooks’s network also reaches into the political world with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown described as friends.
She is married to Charlie Brooks, a racing trainer and old Etonian, and has become friends with David Cameron and his family. – (Copyright The Financial Times Ltd)