News UK appoints Financial Times CPIO Christina Scott as new CTO

Scott will report into News UK's returning CEO Rebekah Brooks

News UK, publisher of The Times, Sunday Times and The Sun, has hired Financial Times chief product information officer Christina Scott as its new CTO.

Scott, who has also worked for the BBC, ITV Digital and Accenture, will run the corporate IT, technology and digital development teams at News UK.

Scott will report into News UK's CEO Rebekah Brooks - who described Scott's appointment as "a coup". She was ranked fourth in Computing's IT Leaders 100 2015, which was unveiled last week at the IT Leaders Summit.

She has been CIO at the FT since May 2012, and was then made SVP of technology for Pearson Professional in January 2014. Most recently, she was named chief product and information officer (CPIO) at the FT, in September last year.

In an interview with Computing in September, Scott explained that the role had come about because there was a gap between the technology area and the FT's products, exemplified by the fact that the product teams were organisationally positioned within the B2C part of the business - which isn't ideal when you want to roll out B2B products.

"It's been good because it [the CPIO role] has helped to drive a number of things. We've been thinking about technology strategy for a while, but we wanted a product strategy, which I said we couldn't have without a customer strategy. And we've never had an articulated customer strategy other than ‘everyone who'll pay'! Which really isn't that focused."

Scott will start her new role in the new year under CEO Brooks. Brooks had quit her role as CEO of the company when it was called News International in 2011, in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. She has since been cleared of all charges related to phone hacking.

Soon after, The Sun editor David Dinsmore was named chief operating officer, which Business Insider suggested put then-COO Chris Taylor - who looked after corporate IT - in a difficult position. Taylor spoke to Computing in February this year about three major projects he headed which aimed to ensure News UK had the edge over its rivals. In October he left News UK.