Helen Boaden and Steve Mitchell have long careers at the BBC
they have been asked to "step aside" pending the outcome of an internal review.
It comes after director general George Entwistle quit on Saturday.
A single management was being re-established to deal with all output "to address the lack of clarity around the editorial chain of command".
The staff changes come about after Newsnight investigations into abuse.
Mr Entwistle resigned after a Newsnight report led to former Tory treasurer, Lord McAlpine, being wrongly accused of child abuse in north Wales in the 1980s.
A report was commissioned by Mr Entwistle after Newsnight unreservedly apologised on Friday for the programme.
Neither Ms Boaden or Mr Mitchell were in the decision-making chain that led to Newsnight's north Wales abuse broadcast.
They had removed themselves from decision making on some areas of BBC News output while a separate inquiry, by former head of Sky News Nick Pollard, was held into a decision to shelve an earlier Newsnight investigation into abuse claims against former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile.
Disciplinary action
Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, in his report on the north Wales broadcast said: "To address the lack of clarity around the editorial chain of command, a decision has been taken to re-establish a single management to deal with all output, Savile related or otherwise."
"Helen Boaden has decided that she is not in a position to undertake this responsibility until the Pollard review has concluded."
Disciplinary action could be taken if appropriate.
Ms Boaden was director of BBC News and Mr Entwistle was director of BBC Vision at the time of the decision not to broadcast the Savile allegations late last year.
She has overall editorial and managerial responsibility for UK-wide and global news and current affairs on radio, television and online.
Mr Entwistle said the pair had a brief discussion about the Newsnight Savile investigation but he did not ask Ms Boaden for further details, he told MPs during an appearance.
Temporary heads
Ms Boaden and Mr Mitchell have been asked to surrender all their responsibilities as head and deputy head of BBC News, pending the results of the Pollard inquiry.
Fran Unsworth, head of newsgathering, and Ceri Thomas, editor of BBC's Radio 4 Today programme have been asked to fill their respective roles, for the time being.
The acting director general of the BBC, Tim Davie, and the chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, have concluded that BBC News needs a new clear line of management control, BBC business editor Robert Peston reported.
Mr Davie and Lord Patten are understood to believe that Ms Boaden's and Mr Mitchell's decision to withdraw from all decision-making on the way the BBC reports the Jimmy Savile scandal has created confusion at BBC News about who is in charge, our correspondent added.
Peston said he had learned that lawyers acting for Ms Boaden and Mr Mitchell have informed Mr Davie that they are quite capable of running BBC News, even with the uncertainty created by the Pollard inquiry.
Chain of command
Meanwhile, more details have emerged about the decision-making process behind Newsnight's care home story.
The controller of Radio 5 live, Adrian Van Klaveren, was in overall charge of the investigation, and he reported to a member of the BBC's management board, the BBC Northern Ireland controller Peter Johnston.
BBC broadcaster David Dimbleby said Mr Entwistle was not the suited to the job.
"The fact he chose to resign rather than fight showed he wasn't actually the right choice for director general, admirable man though he may be.
"If you're going to be the DG you've got to fight for the organisation, and you've got to fight for the many people who work for it - who you and I know are often underpaid, hard pressed, and baffled and confused by the management above them."
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