Rebekah Wade steps up

After six years as the first female editor of Britain's biggest red-top newspaper, the Sun, Rebekah Wade has been named as chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International - making her one of the most powerful woman in the British media.

Her promotion will trigger a frenzy of speculation about who will replace her, but News International was giving nothing away yesterday, simply stating that Wade would start her new role on September 1 and that the paper would make a decision about her successor "in the summer". The front-runner is her deputy, Dominic Mohan.

Wade, 41, started as a researcher for the News of the World 20 years ago, rising to become the Sunday paper’s editor before moving across to the daily Sun.

In her new role she will be responsible for all Murdoch’s British print titles. This puts her in charge of the long-serving Sunday Times editor John Witherow, who is said to have had his eye on the chief executive job in the past, and James Harding, the Times editor who is still trying to live down the fact that his paper turned away the Commons expenses leak, and saw its great rival the Daily Telegraph enjoy the scoop of the century (so far).

Wade will report to Rupert Murdoch's son James, who has been promoted to executive chairman of News International from the same date.

The new role puts her on a par with Sly Bailey, chief executive of rival newspaper group Trinity Mirror. Bailey pulls in more than £1m a year and is considered one of the most powerful female executives in Europe.

As editor of the News of the World, Wade championed the naming and shaming of paedophiles and threw the paper's weight behind calls for a Sarah's Law - named after mirdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne. However, the campaign also led to vigilante attacks, including one against a paediatrician.

At the Sun she made waves by admitting that the paper sometimes paid police for stories. Within the office, her emails became the stuff of Fleet Street legend. "How many of you woke up this morning, read the Daily Mirror and tendered your resignation?" began one message, after the paper had been scooped by its red-top rival.

Wade has occasioinally found her own name in the newspaper diary columns. In 2002 she married EastEnders tough-guy Ross Kemp and in 2005 she was arrested and spent a night in the cells after an altercation at their home, although she was not charged.

The couple later divorced and earlier this month she tied the knot with the Old Etonian racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks in a lavish ceremony in Oxfordshire. They met at the home of Jeremy Clarkson, a columnist for both the Sun and the Sunday Times.