BREAKING: The News of the World, the paper at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, is to publish its final edition this Sunday.
The BBC reports:
This Sunday’s issue of the News of the World will be the last edition of the paper, News International chairman James Murdoch has said.
In the past few days, claims have been made that the paper authorised hacking into the mobile phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and the families of 7/7 bombing victims.
Mr Murdoch said proceeds from the last edition would go to good causes.
Downing Street said it had no role or involvement in the decision.
In a statement made to staff, Mr Murdoch said the good things the News of the World does “have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong – indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company”.
“The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.”
Read more at the BBC News website and at Media Guardian’s live blog.
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16 Comments
I wonder how many weeks we’ll have to wait for the launch of the Sunday Sun…
Scorched earth .. and then arise the Sun on Sunday.
Brookes crying… oh dear.. perhaps she should go to her best friend for a cuddle…. I’m sure dave will oblige.
Brilliant, punish those journalists and other NotW workers who had nothing at all to do with the phone hacking. Let’s keep those higher up in their jobs while those lower down struggle to make mortgage payments etc. This is purely business for the Murdoch’s. Get rid of a damaged brand that was losing it’s advertising revenue.
This is a decision that musn’t be celebrated. As IMc says, how long before the replacement is launced? It seems http://www.thesundaysun.co.uk was registered two days ago. News International will just turn around and say “look, we’ve lanced the boil, what more do you want us to do?” No more internal inquiries within the NotW as it no longer exists.
This must not be used as an excuse to halt the proposed enquiries. It must also not be used by News Corp to claim that their share of the newspaper market is below 40%. After all, we all know that there will be a replacement ere long.
It’s thesunonsunday.co.uk andthesunonsunday.com that was registered two days ago.
An utterly cynical move by Murdoch to protect the rest of his empire. I don’t know what proportion of his revenue comes from newspapers and what from other, electronic, media, but I am pretty sure that the latter proportion is the greater, and will become ever more so. Sacrificing an irremediably tainted brand in order to protect his interests in BSkyB etc. is just self-serving theatre.
LibDems: please, please do all you can to influence Cameron & Hunt to stop this deal going through. Murdoch is NOT a fit and proper person to run the media he already owns, let alone more.
You can redeem yourselves quite a bit here. Make sure the deal is stopped, or threaten to pull out of the coalition. Our democracy is at stake.
Wow, NI will throw almost anything under the bus to save Rebekkah Brooks, huh?
So Murdoch has decided to close down The News of the World after a haemorrhaging of advertisers made it not necessarily unviable (there is the option of a Sunday Sun) but inconvenient if you want to keep your BSkyB bid reasonably clean. How many politicians, already in hock to Murdoch, will see this as a face-saving compromise to allow the BSkyB bid to go ahead? Probably Jeremy Hunt, and if he can, David Cameron. These politicians are besmirched in my eyes because they bow to an evil empire that we have a perhaps unique chance to vanquish. It was about this stage into his premiership that I felt I was at war with Tony Blair’s lack of moral principles. I now feel the same way about Cameron. Any way I can, I will campaign against what, in Whittam Smith’s eyes, could become the Mafia of this country. News International has no moral principles at all, and cannot be trusted in anything it says. It needs, in this country, to be destroyed. This has outraged me as nothing had since the Iraq war. I have now signed up to four protests against NI’s BSkyB bid and will sign any more provided they are not from the looney left or right.
So how about it, Lib Dems! Make this an issue on which you will break the coalition on moral grounds, recover your estimation with the public, and do the country a favour.
I dislike Newscorp/Murdoch as much as anyone here but you got to hand it to him…he knows how to run a good spoiler.
As for (b)SKY(b) – does anyone really think Murdoch isn’t already in control there?
The Murdochs still own 40% of the British Media.
Will the demise of the News of the World 11/7/11, founded in 1843 for 3 p a copy, be a step nearer to a new age of scrutiny and probity in policing and journalism?
I hope the final edition of the News of the World exceeds its highest circulation of 9 million, so to provide some revenue for its pledged good causes like `Help for Heroes’.
Perhaps the only editor of the News of the World over 168 years,to be remembered will be Sir Emsley Carr whose son founded the Emsley Carr Mile in 1953 with intent to host the breaking of the 4 minute mile.
you’ve got to hand it to Murdoch – an evil genius. Declining tabloid circulation, a tarnished brand and the threat to the takeover of BSkyB, a much more profitable business. So you close the NOTW, meaning you can save money with a consolidated 7 day a week Sun paper, and keep the BSkyB bid on the table.
To me, we shouldn’t focus on Murdoch, there will always be large media barons. We need to focus on widespread illegal practice across the newspaper world and police corruption and widespread police leaking. We need a proper inquiry.
Maybe I’m cynical but why should all the workers lose their jobs to save those at the top who wish to avoid taking responsibility……
Yep, I am with those who think this is a stroke of “evil genuis”. I think the NOTW would ultimately have been finished by advertisers and the continuing fall-out. Instead of a dramatic drop in circulation, they will presumably be hoping to annoucne a huge rise in circulation this Sunday…
So, in answer to Patrick Smith (and with apologies for shouting) – DON’T BUY THE NOTW THIS SUNDAY – a massive circulation will be used by Murdoch to suggest that the Great British Public have bought into the penance and offering their support. IF YOU WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO “HELP FOR HEROES”, JUST GIVE THEM THE MONEY INSTEAD.
Also, I shouldn’t worry too much about most of the employees who will surely be shortly employed by the Sun on Sunday…
It is the police corruption that is the story here, not Murdoch.
All societies have bad people in them. The way to judge a society is to look at how it handles those that break its laws. When those that are supposed to uphold the law allow others to break it by breaking the law themselves, then it is very worrying.
I suspect that Murdoch was planning to integrate NOTW with THE Sun anyway to make a 7-day Sun, and the current situation has given him the ideal opportunity to do it while pretending it’s a dramatic reaction to the phone-tapping.