Tom Mockridge is to be the new Chief Executive Officer of News International, the British subsidiary of News Corp.
He will assume responsibility for his new role with immediate effect following the resignation of Rebekah Brooks.
News International runs The Sun, Britain's biggest selling daily newspaper, The Times and the Sunday Times. It closed down the 168-year-old News of the World on Sunday in a vain bid to save Mr Murdoch's bid for pay-TV giant BSkyB.
Mr Mockridge has been CEO of Sky Italia since its launch in 2003.
He is also a non-executive director of BSkyB and a member of the Supervisory Board of Sky Deutschland.
He was chief executive of the European Television of News Corporation, overseeing News Corporation's television operations in Europe, outside of the UK.
Prior to joining Sky Italia, Mr Mockridge was chief executive of the publicly-listed New Zealand company, Independent Newspapers, and chairman of Sky New Zealand.
He previously held various roles at Star Group Limited and spent three years as CEO of Foxtel, News Corporation's Australian pay TV joint venture.
Mr Mockridge joined News Corporation in January 1991, working for Ken Cowley, chairman and chief executive of the Australian newspaper company News Limited.
Before that, he was a spokesperson in the Australian government.
He started his career as a newspaper journalist in New Zealand.
James Murdoch, Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Chairman and CEO, International, News Corporation, said: 'Tom is 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 Corp had total assets as of 31 March, 2011, of approximately $60bn and total annual revenues of approximately $33bn.
The global media company has operations in six industry segments: cable network programming; filmed entertainment; television; direct broadcast satellite television; publishing; and other.
The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the UK, Australia, Asia and Latin America.
