S T I L L T E N E R I F E ’ S O N LY F R E E Q U A L I T Y W E E K LY N E W S PA P E R
Issue 711
08 July 2011 - 14 July 2011
www.canarianweekly.com
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Weekly paper folds ON SUNDAY, the printing presses of the world’s mightiest newspaper will roll for the News of the World for last time at Wapping. The demise of the Sunday paper heralds one of the biggest stories of all time, overtaking any revelation they could have possibly have matched, for all their world exclusives down the years. Faced with a host of new claims over alleged phonehacking scandals, owner Rupert Murdoch had no option but to close the 168-year-old newspaper. One of the primary reasons for the closure will surely have been the mass boycott of leading advertisers, including Asda, Boots, Co-op, Dixons, Ford, Halifax, Npower, Sainsbury's and Specsavers. It is understood that News International were left with just BSkyB, British Gas, Mars and Tesco. The NOW is thought to have averaged about £660,000 in advertising income each weekend, according to industry estimates. The decision to close the paper, announced by Murdoch’s son, James, is understood to have followed a meeting yesterday (Thursday) between Murdoch Snr and his leading executives. James Murdoch, News International Chairman, said: “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.” He added that the final edition would not run any commercial adverts - with the advertising space to be donat-
ed to causes and charities. "The good things the News Of The World do, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong," said Murdoch Jnr. "Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company. "The News Of The World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself." It is understood that Rebekah Brooks, the NOW's former editor and current News
International chief executive, was in tears when she told staff about the decision. The paper's current editor, 59-year-old Liverpudlian Colin Myler, was said to be absolutely furious, and journalists were devastated. The News of the World will be the first national newspaper to close since Rupert Murdoch shut News International midmarket tabloid Today in 1995. The NOW has been News International's most profitable title for many years. A spokesperson for the company would not comment on whether the company would continue to publish any Sunday tabloid. There are already rumours that daily tabloid The Sun could be turned into a seven-day publication. Interestingly, the internet domain name thesunonsunday.co.uk was registered two days ago, although the owner's identity is unclear.
How the mighty have fallen THE weekly broadsheet News of the World, founded in 1843 and aimed at the working classes, gained an instant reputation for titillation, shock and criminal news. That was to be its banner forever, and it earned the nicknames Screws of the World or News of the Screws because of its never-ending diet of salacious gossip and sex scandals. It was the biggest-selling,
most widely-read paper in the world, with a Sunday circulation of over eight million in the Fifties. The NOW, which was transformed into a tabloid, gained a reputation for exposing celebrities as drug-users or criminals, wife-beaters or cheaters, and specialised in setting up insiders and journalists in disguise to expose their “victims”. But sales slumped in the
past 20 years and the paper was averaging just under three million recently. It was dogged by its own phone-tapping scandals as long ago as January 2007 and that distasteful practice, which never went away despite all the denials, was to lead to its downfall. Its closure will be a blow to thousands of its readers all over Tenerife, who made it the Island’s best-selling paper by far.