Jeremy Darroch, chief executive of BSkyB

Jeremy Darroch's appointment as chief executive of BSkyB, to succeed James Murdoch, comes as little surprise. A key ally of Mr Murdoch, his arrival as chief financial officer in 2004 was seen as an effort to demonstrate the independence of the broadcaster from the Murdoch family. After Sky took its £940 million stake in ITV, Mr Murdoch explained that he and Mr Darroch had developed the plan during a flight to Spain.

Before joining Sky, Mr Darroch, 45, was retail finance director and later group finance director at Dixons, and had previously spent 12 years in a variety of roles in the UK and Europe at Procter & Gamble. In 2006 he was appointed a non-executive director of Marks and Spencer.

Les Hinton, chief executive of Dow Jones

Les Hinton, 63, began his life in newspapers as a copy boy at the age of 15 and went on to become one of the most powerful figures in the industry.

As one of Rupert Murdoch's most trusted executives, he has spent his entire 40-year career working for News Corporation.

After joining as a reporter for the Adelaide News he worked as a journalist and executive in Australia, the US and the UK. He spent 20 years in the US, as a correspondent and latterly as an executive at Fox television and News America Publishing, publisher of the New York Post.

In 1995 he was appointed executive chairman of News International, overseeing publication of The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, the News of the World and, more recently, The London Paper. He is also chairman of the code of practice committee at the Press Complaints Commission and has retained an enthusiasm for newspapers in an industry whose focus is rapidly shiftly to the digital.

Richard Zannino, outgoing chief executive of Dow Jones

Richard Zannino joined Dow Jones in 2001 as chief financial officer and was appointed chief executive in February last year.

From 1993 to 1998 he was chief financial officer and later executive vice-president at another iconic American company, Saks, and before joining Dow Jones he held senior roles at Liz Claiborne.

In the face of falling newspaper sales and advertising revenue, he launched a major restructuring at Dow Jones to expand its digital offering and cut costs.

To ease the company's reliance on newspaper advertising, he increased subscription charges for the website of The Wall Street Journal, and in another cost-cutting measure found that $18 million could be saved annually by narrowing the width of the paper's newsprint.

Mr Zannino, 49, studied at Bentley College in Massachusetts and Pace University, and today holds a number of positions in education: among other roles, he serves as a member of the Columbia Business School Media Forum and is involved in the Institute for Collaborative Education, a New York City public school.

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