News of the World

News of the World was a national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011, printing its last edition on 10 July that year. Originally established as a broadsheet by John Browne Bell, the Bells sold to Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969 it was bought from the Carrs by Rupert Murdoch's media firm News Ltd. Reorganised into News International, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation, it was transformed into a tabloid in 1984. News of the World was the Sunday sister paper of The Sun. The newspaper concentrated on celebrity-based scoops and populist news. Its fondness for sex scandals gained it the nicknames "News of the Screws" and "Screws of the World". It had a reputation for exposing national or local celebrities as drug users, sex freaks or criminals, setting up insiders and journalists in disguise to provide either video or photographic evidence, and phone hacking in ongoing police investigations. Sales averaged 2,812,005 copies per week in October 2010. On 16 September 2010, it was announced that the online website of the paper would be placed behind a paywall.

The editor Andy Coulson resigned on 26 January 2007 over the royal phone tapping scandal. He was succeeded by Colin Myler, a former editor of Sunday Mirror who had latterly worked at The New York Post. Previous editors of the paper include Piers Morgan and Rebekah Wade, who replaced Phil Hall in 2000. On 7 July 2011, News International announced that the News of the World would be permanently closed that week, the last issue being produced on Sunday 10 July 2011. The closure was in response to the developing phone hacking scandal, after a private investigator allegedly hacked into the phone of murdered British teenager Milly Dowler, possibly interfering with the police investigation and causing distress to the girl's parents. The allegations led to a public backlash and the loss of advertising revenue, as a number of companies advertising with the paper pulled out pending an investigation. The scandal deepened when the paper was alleged to have hacked into the phones of families of soldiers killed in action. As a result of the scandal, James Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation, Europe and Asia, announced on 7 July 2011 that the 10 July 2011 edition of the paper would be the last.

On 8 July 2011 former editor Andy Coulson was arrested by police investigating phone hacking and corruption allegations. On the same day ex-NoW royal editor Clive Goodman, jailed for phone hacking in 2007, was also arrested over similar corruption claims.

End of publication

It was announced on 7 July 2011 that, after 168 years in print, the newspaper would print its final edition on 10 July 2011 following revelations of the ongoing phone hacking scandal, with the loss of 200 jobs. The paper announced that all profits from the final edition - 74 pence out of the £1 cover price - would go to "good causes", and advertising space would be given to charities; the remaining 26 pence for each copy went to retailers selling the paper and to wholesalers.

Downing Street said it had no role in the decision. James Murdoch has claimed that the company is fully co-operating with ongoing police investigations.

The 10 July 2011 edition of the News of the World carried its final headline, "Thank You and Goodbye", superimposed on top of a collage of past front pages. The back cover featured quotes from George Orwell in 1946, and a recent quote from a NotW reader, Jeanne Hobson. The final edition also included a 48-page pullout documenting the history of the paper. On 9 July 2011, after production of the final edition wrapped, editor Colin Myler led the staff out of the building, where he held a press conference thanking the staff and its readers, concluding, "In the best tradition, we are going to the pub. In the paper's final editorial, the unsigned statement says that "Phones were hacked, and for that this newspaper is truly sorry... there is no justification for this appalling wrongdoing.

There is speculation that News International will launch a Sunday edition of The Sun to replace the News of the World. The internet URLs sunonsunday.co.uk, thesunonsunday.co.uk and thesunonsunday.com were registered on July 5th 2011 by News International Newspapers Limited. A similar URL sunonsunday.com is not affiliated, having been registered in Italy on September 24th 2007.