Sarah Sands, the editor of the London Evening Standard, is leaving the paper to become the editor of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
She will replace outgoing editor Jamie Angus, who was recently appointed the BBC’s deputy director of the World Service.
Ms Sands, 55, will be the second woman to edit the news programme, which traditionally sets the day’s news agenda.
Dame Jenny Abramsky, now chair of the UK National Heritage Fund, edited the programme until 1993.
The Standard boosted its free circulation under Ms Sands’ leadership, rising from 700,000 to 900,000.
The paper tackled illiteracy in schools and food waste under a number of acclaimed campaigns led by Ms Sands.
The paper, owned by Evgeny Lebedev, posted a £1.4m profit in 2015, its third consecutive year of profits.
Ms Sands, who has edited the paper for five years, told the paper’s owner Mr Lebedev last week, according to the Financial Times.
She is the second of Mr Lebedev’s editors to leave for the BBC at a time of great disruption in the newspaper industry.
Amol Rajan, former editor of The Independent, is now the BBC’s Media Editor.
Sarah Sands said: “I’ve felt very close to the Today programme for more than 40 years: every listener does. It is an honour to join the team whose journalism makes such a contribution to British life.”
James Harding, Director of BBC News and Current Affairs, said in an email to staff: “Sarah is a hugely experienced and highly respected journalist. For the past five years, she has been the Editor of the London Evening Standard and, prior to that, she was the Editor of The Sunday Telegraph.
“She will bring her familiar verve and her broad range of interests to the programme and will build on Today’s absolute commitment to critical and analytical journalism.”
In a statement, Mr Lebedev said: “The Evening Standard has been a huge success under Sarah’s editorship, and she has been a vital part of the team since this company acquired the Evening Standard in 2009.”
“Sarah will leave with our very best wishes for her new role.”
Ms Sands added: “I am grateful to Evgeny for his support of this newspaper and guarding it against all the head winds of the industry. It has been an absolute pleasure to work for him and to be part of a first rate professional team.”
The paper will now begin the search for Ms Sands’ replacement. She is expected stay in post until her successor is named.
Mr Angus moved to the World Service with a brief to provide strategic leadership for the corporation’s global news arm and the bbc.com website.
Editor of the the Today programme since 2013, he hired Nick Robinson and Mishal Husain as new presenters and saw the show achieve record ratings of 7.4 million.
