Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Rupert Murdoch’s media holdings in Britain, acquitted last year on charges related to the phone hacking scandal, is likely to return to News Corporation to focus on new avenues for digital and social media, people familiar with the company’s plans said.
Brooks will probably take an executive role in which she will seek ways to expand News Corporation’s digital endeavours, particularly user-generated and social media. That will include working with Storyful, a company that monitors social media for newsworthy material, which was acquired in 2013.
She has not yet signed a contract, said two people familiar with internal plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal a confidential matter, and her precise role has not been formalised. It is likely that she will be based in Britain, though she will not work from the headquarters of News Corporation’s British subsidiary, News UK.
A report in The Mail on Sunday said that she would seek new online acquisitions for Murdoch in New York. The Financial Times earlier reported that she would run Storyful.
Brooks was acquitted of phone hacking and three other charges last June. In autumn, she was seen in New York at News Corporation’s headquarters and having brunch with Murdoch in Park Slope. In Britain, she had been known for her meteoric rise from secretary to tabloid kingmaker.
