End of 'the World'
July 11, 2011
The final issue of the British tabloid paper News of the World hit the newsstands Sunday with the front page reading: "Thank You & Goodbye."
The newspaper was shut down by publisher News Corp after claims of illegal hacking into the voice mail of celebrities, the families of soldiers killed in combat and a kidnapped girl who later turned out to have been murdered.
"This is not where we wanted to be and it's not where we deserve to be, but as a final tribute to 7.5 million readers, this is for you and the staff, thank you," editor Colin Myler told the media crowd outside its east London offices.
End of an era
The News of the World was England's best-selling Sunday paper. Best known for its attention-grabbing headlines and sensational stories about sex, crime and celebrities, Sunday's edition charts the paper's highlights over the past 168 years.
On Saturday night, many of the editorial staff appeared outside the offices of the paper with copies of the final edition, expressing their disappointment.
"I feel very, very sad," Harry Scott, News of the World associate editor, told reporters outside the paper's offices in east London. "It's a terrible day for us all. It hasn't been easy putting together the final paper."
More than 200 staff now face an uncertain future.
The newspaper editorial apologized for the phone-hacking scandal, saying for a few years up to 2006 that some of its employees had fallen "shamefully short" of the standards it sought to uphold.
"There is no justification for this appalling wrongdoing. No justification for the pain caused to victims, nor for the deep stain it has left on a great history," the editorial said.
Deals in jeopardy
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Corp, arrived in England Sunday to attempt to do some damage control and shore up an impending deal to buy the British Broadcaster BSkyB.
Critics of the decision to close the paper said it was made a sacrificial lamb to keep the BSkyB deal alive.
The British government is due to decide soon on the bid for BSkyB, but opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband called on Prime Minister David Cameron to postpone the takeover and said he would try to hold a vote in parliament this week if necessary.
"The idea that this organization, which is engaged in these terrible practices, should be allowed to take over BSkyB, to get that 100 percent stake without the criminal investigation having been completed and on the basis of assurances from that self-same organization - frankly that just won't wash with the public," Miliband told the BBC.
Murdoch also met with Rebekah Brooks on Sunday, the beleaguered former editor and chief executive of Murdoch's British newspaper empire News International. The Sunday Telegraph has reported that police wish to question Brooks about what she knew regarding phone hacking when she was editor from 2000 to 2003.
Brooks has always denied any wrongdoing and Murdoch has said that she is his first priority and enjoys his "total" support.
"I'm not throwing innocent people under the bus," Murdoch said
As a result of the ongoing investigation into the scandal, Brooks' successor as editor, Andy Coulson, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking and illegal police payments on Friday. Coulson is the former director of communications for Prime Minister Cameron.
Despite public anger over the phone hacking, Britons were snapping up the final edition as a souvenir on Sunday, with the usual print run being doubled to 5 million copies.
Author: Stuart Tiffen, Catherine Bolsover, Spencer Kimball (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
Editor: Ian P. Johnson