Could Rebekah Brooks be on the verge of rejoining Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation? A gossipy piece on the usually well-informed Capital New York website has come up with an interesting scenario.
It suggests that Brooks might step into the shoes of Robert Thomson, News Corp’s chief executive, because he - according to the article - is about to return to his native Australia to run News Corp’s business there.
It sounds far-fetched to me and the piece is somewhat light on sources. One undisputed fact first. Brooks, the former News International chief executive, did spend time at News Corp’s headquarters in Manhattan last month, as Capital New York’s Joe Pompeo revealed.
A News Corp spokesman confirmed it by saying that she and her family were in New York and that Brooks was “meeting with businesses as she explores and considers her professional future.”
Now for the speculation. According to the Australian Financial Review, Brooks - with husband, Charlie, and two-year-old daughter Scarlett - are ensconced in “a new pad in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.”
Building on that, Leela de Kretser, in her first column for Capital New York, writes of Brooks spending time at the New York Post, and that “corporate sources are even wondering if she is going to be made editor of the tabloid.”
But she knocks that rumour down before claiming that Thomson is heading to Sydney. “Everyone” in Australia is saying he is about to arrive, she writes, “which my sources are also hearing.” His “expertise” is evidently “greatly needed” at News Ltd.
If so, and this is one giant if, it would leave Thomson’s CEO spot open for Brooks. Maybe.
De Kretser does conclude, incidentally, by citing a News Corp representative who “insists... Thomson is staying just where he is.”