ITV News editor Deborah Turness has been appointed as president of New York based NBC News.

Turness has spent 24 years at ITN. She has been running ITV News since 2004, when she became the UK's first female editor of network news, a distinction she will also hold in the US. She was previously editor at Five News and deputy editor at ITV News.

Turness said: "It is quite simply the greatest imaginable honour to be named as the next president of NBC News. I am hugely excited by the opportunities that lie ahead and look forward to working with the talented journalists and technicians who make it one of the great global news operations. I owe so much to ITN for nearly 25 fabulous years of adventures and challenges."

John Hardie, ITN chief executive said: "ITN's loss is most definitely NBC's gain and I'm sure we can expect to see Deborah's energy and genius shine through in the news output of one of ITN's biggest partners."

Turness will leave ITN in July, begining her role in New York in August. ITN and ITV have stated they will work together to find her successor.

Hardie added: "I have no doubt that the opportunity to lead ITV News will attract the very best in the business."