Close-Up: Profile - Labour's rising star is getting behind adland.(James Purnell)(Biography)

James Purnell, new minister for media and tourism, could be good for the industry, our Parliamentary correspondent says.

In 1989, a bright Oxford PPE graduate called James Purnell joined the office of a rising 35-year-old New Labour star called Tony Blair as his researcher.

Now Purnell is following in his mentor's footsteps. He is a 35-year-old rising star appointed as the minister for media and tourism, with responsibility for advertising and other 'creative industries'.

The Department of Trade and Industry, traditionally the sponsor of the ad industry, is letting go and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, where Purnell is a junior minister, is tightening its grip.

Officially, the two Whitehall empires will share responsibility for advertising, but it is increasingly clear that the DCMS is a more natural home and will call the shots.

When Purnell was promoted from the Labour whips' office to his first departmental post in Blair's post-election reshuffle, he was a rare breed: a new minister who actually knew something about his brief. The mountain of paperwork in his red ministerial boxes was familiar to a man who developed the Government's media policy as a research fellow for the left-of-centre think-tank the Institute of Public Policy Research. Previously, he was the BBC's head of corporate planning under John Birt and was then responsible for broadcasting, culture, sport and technology in the Downing Street Policy Unit. He became the MP for Stalybridge and Hyde in 2001.

His experience in the media world should stand Purnell in good stead when he embarks on a round of meetings with the advertising industry. A session with Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO is already in his diary; Mother and others will follow shortly. Although advertising is only a small part of his overall brief, he is taking it seriously.