News of the World: "Thank you and goodbye"
The British Sunday tabloid, with 168 years of history, published its last edition this Sunday with the headline: Thank you and goodbye. The editorial included an apology to readers for the illegal phone hacking.
247 - The best-selling Sunday tabloid in the US – with an average of three million copies – hit newsstands for the last time with the headline "Thank You and Goodbye," and an editorial apologizing for the newspaper's alleged "loss of focus." The scandal of illegal wiretapping of family members of victims of tragic deaths, such as the case of 13-year-old Milly, recently found dead in England in a crime that shocked the country, destroyed the tabloid's credibility and led media mogul Rupert Murdoch to decide on its permanent closure. The newspaper is the oldest in the media group, with 168 years of history.
With the latest edition of the British newspaper News of the World in hand, Murdoch arrived at the offices of his editorial division in London on Sunday to confront the growing phone-hacking scandal that led to the newspaper's closure. Television coverage showed images of the News Corp. CEO being driven to the London offices of News International. The 80-year-old businessman was seated in the passenger seat of a red Range Rover with a copy of the latest edition of the best-selling Sunday tabloid in his hands. Britons are also buying the latest issue of News of the World after the 168-year-old newspaper was brought down by the phone-hacking scandal.
Issue number 8.674 apologizes for disappointing readers. "We strive for high standards, we demand high standards, but as we now know, for a period of some years up to 2006, some people who worked for us, or on our behalf, did not meet those standards," states a full-page editorial. "Simply put, we lost our focus. Phones were tapped, and for that this newspaper is deeply sorry." Allegations that News of the World journalists paid the police for information and tapped the voicemail of murder victims and the grieving families of fallen soldiers led Murdoch's Ness International to shut down the tabloid. The developments became a sensation in the British media industry amid concerns that police investigations will not stop with the News of the World and uncover new stories about the relationship between British politicians and the tabloid press.
Murdoch, considered the king of British media, is facing criticism not only for new allegations of impropriety but also for the decision to close the newspaper and lay off 200 journalists. Ending the operations of the News of the World, which was launched on October 1, 1843, is being seen as a desperate attempt by the media conglomerate to quell negative criticism and thus save the $19 billion deal to acquire the satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting.
The British government has signaled that the deal will be delayed due to the crisis, and the scandal continues to raise new questions about corruption at the newspaper and media regulation in the UK. The crisis has reached the highest levels of government, with the former communications chief for Prime Minister David Cameron, journalist Andy Coulson, being one of three men arrested this week as part of a police investigation into phone hacking and corruption allegations. Coulson is a former editor of the News of the World. Cameron has called for a new system of media regulation and a public inquiry into what went wrong; the head of Murdock's newspaper operations in the UK has signaled that further revelations may come.