Herrmann's catchwords are 'excellence' and 'creativity'

Mr Herrmann was previously World Editor of the department, which also produces interactive TV news and digital text.

It also produces the CBBC Newsround website, news for mobile devices and syndicates content to other websites.

Mr Herrmann said: "It's obviously a huge privilege to land the job of running such a successful operation."

'Technical innovation'

He is replacing Pete Clifton, who is now the head of News Interactive.

Mr Herrmann said he would work with the rest of the editorial team "to deliver the best of the BBC's journalism across all our platforms from web to interactive TV, keeping the focus on editorial excellence and creativity.

"At the heart of this will be our ability to continue to make the most of our skill and experience in technical innovation to bring what we do to our audiences in new and effective ways," he added.

The department was founded in 1997 when it launched the BBC News website, which attracts more than 700 million page impressions a month and reaches more than a quarter of UK internet users.

It has an average of nearly four million global readers per day.