Newspaper Caught in Its own Hacking Scandal to Close after 168 Years

Following up on our story yesterday, News International has announced that The News of The World, first published in 1843, is to close this Sunday 10th July 2011. The final edition will have no ads following the mass withdrawal by companies and charities and all proceeds will go to a charity that is yet to be nominated. This came as the families of dead British Army servicemen from Afghanistan and possibly Iraq are the latest group to have had their mobile phone voicemail allegedly hacked. This led to the Royal British Legion dumping the newspaper as its campaigning partner. 11,000 pages of notes and diaries have been in police possession from the private investigator who has admitted his part in the commissioned hacking. To date, up to 4,000 people could have been targeted and this will be the only story in town over a slow summer for at least the next month or so.

At the moment it’s rumoured that The Sun, the sister daily paper with separate editors and writers, will fill the gap with a Sunday edition that runs nationwide. It would have to have an adjustment to the name to avoid confusion with the existing unrelated Sunday Sun which is a regional Northern English newspaper. However, it’s still a landmark moment for British journalism for all the wrong reasons.

The BBC’s coverage of the story continues here and the Guardian here. Whenever the story subsides head to the Guardian’s front page depending on how they archive it.

– CBG