Murdoch’s News of the World Will Be Shuttered
Amid investigations into charges of hired detectives hacking into the phones and voicemails of everyone from the British Royal Family to a murdered teenage girl and families of dead British troops, Rupert Murdoch’s UK news rag News of the World (and we use the word “news” lightly) will be shuttered after this weekend.
While illegal, British tabloids are rumored to have spied on celebrities for years, but the breaking point came recently when the Guardian reported that journalists from the News of the World not only broke into a missing teenage girl’s phone, but deleted voicemails from concerned family members to make room for more. The girl, Milly Dowler, was later found murdered, but family members kept their hopes up when they assumed that  she was checking her voicemail.
That unleashed the floodgates, and there are now questions surrounding hacking into the phone accounts of family members related to dead British servicemen, as well as a host of celebrities.
News of the World has been published since 1843, and is currently Britain’s best selling newspaper. Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Fox News channel in the US among many other global media outlets, acquired the paper in 1969.
The current News of the World staff has not been named in the phone hacking allegations, but the stench of the scandal attached itself to the paper so thoroughly that it proved difficult to assign responsibility to one or two rogue reporters. With advertisers like Ford and Vauxhall pulling their ads from the paper for fear of guilt by association, parent company News Corp. has decided to pull the plug on the brand completely. {Huffington Post}
“Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper. This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World. Colin Myler will edit the final edition of the paper.
In addition, I have decided that all of the News of the World’s revenue this weekend will go to good causes. While we may never be able to make up for distress that has been caused, the right thing to do is for every penny of the circulation revenue we receive this weekend to go to organisations – many of whom are long-term friends and partners – that improve life in Britain and are devoted to treating others with dignity. We will run no commercial advertisements this weekend. Any advertising space in this last edition will be donated to causes and charities that wish to expose their good works to our millions of readers.
These are strong measures. They are made humbly and out of respect. I am convinced they are the right thing to do.” – James Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation, Europe and Asia
