The News of the World is a national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1843, the paper is scheduled to cease publication following the 10 July 2011 edition in the wake of a phone hacking scandal.[2]
The newspaper is published by News Group Newspapers of News International, itself a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and is the Sunday sister paper of The Sun. The newspaper concentrates on celebrity-based scoops and populist news. The paper's fondness for sex scandals gained it the nicknames "News of the Screws" and "Screws of the World". It had a reputation for exposing celebrities as drug users 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.[3] On 16 September 2010, it was announced that the online website of the paper would be placed behind a paywall.[4]
The editor Andy Coulson resigned on 26 January 2007 over the royal phone tapping scandal.[5] He was succeeded by Colin Myler, a former editor of theSunday 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 will be permanently closed that week, the last issue being produced on Sunday 10 July 2011. The closure is 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.[6] 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.[7][8]
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.
