Ex-News of the World editor joins rival Murdoch paper

Editor of UK's scandal-hit and Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World, Colin Myler, has been hired as editor-in-chief of a New York daily, a position that will put him in direct competition with Murdoch's other leading publication New York Post.

Myler, 59, will begin his tenure at the New York Daily News on January 10. He succeeds Kevin Convey, who had been editor since 2010.

After the red-faced London tabloid closed last July amid a major hacking scandal, Myler had testified before a UK parliamentary committee that he had informed James Murdoch in early 2008 that hacking to get sensational news was becoming commonplace at the paper.

James Murdoch said he had not known about the hacking practice till a few years later.

Myler's new appointment puts him in direct competition with his longtime employer Murdoch.

Before he joined News of the World, Myler had spent five years as editor of the New York Post, which is a rival to the Daily News in the New York's tabloid market.

The Daily News is the fourth-largest US newspaper, with an average weekday circulation of about 600,000, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The New York Post has an average weekday circulation of about 512,000.

"The New York Daily News is a great institution of American journalism which will only get better under the leadership of Colin," Mort Zuckerman, the paper's chairman and publisher, said in a statement.