Hammer and Nut?



James Murdoch has announced that this Sunday's edition of the News of the World will be the paper's last. Murdoch broke the news to staff this afternoon and that many journalists are said to be distraught and phoning their families.

In a statement James Murdoch said: "We will run no commercial advertisements this weekend. Any advertising space in this last edition will be donated to causes and charities that wish to expose their good works to our millions of readers."


Orlando Parfitt, a former News of the World journalist said, "I have very mixed emotions. On one hand, I am gutted. I have many friends at the paper - ex-colleagues who had nothing to do with the phone hacking scandal - who have just found out they will lose their jobs.  I still believe the paper was home to some of the most talented journalists in the industry and I used to be extremely proud to say I had worked there. However, the latest batch of allegations was sickening and permanently tarnished the name of the paper."

As the list of advertisers grew over the last couple of days in reaction to ever more repugnant stories of phone-hacking (the family of Milly Dowler, the Soham murder victims families, dead soldiers in Afghanistan) grew stronger and we saw how new technology can be used to good effect as messageboards were filled with details of how to protest to various companies about product placement in what has become Britain's most reviled Sunday newspaper as well as it's biggest selling. What began with Ford spread to other major advertisers and it was clear that there was a public appetite for something stronger than a little wrist slapping.

Of course shutting the newspaper doesn't make much difference to those who were in charge when these alleged offences took place, many have moved on to bigger and better things and they now have t o hope that they don't get dragged into a protracted court case and public enquiry. The buying of information from serving police officers does lead to a new definition of the phrase 'police informant' but the reaction yesterday of Scotland Yard raises as many questions as it provides answers. If serving police officers were willing to sell the names, addresses and ex-directory phone numbers of people involved in murder cases or disappearances going back to 2001 what else were they prepared to sell? Also how far up the News International chain did this actually go?

The News Of The World has always been known as The News of The Screws or Screws by many people because in the days before phone hacking and an explosion of cheap surveillance equipment it was the go-to paper for the latest tittle tattle or scandal and whilst we do generally grow out of that stuff it did provide entertainment for millions. But it was also a bloody good paper in respect of its sports coverage and attracted the great and the good to write in it, and not via ghost writers, Darren Gough was a writer for five years, Gary Lineker was a writer until today, it scooped the betting scandal last year involving Pakistan cricketers.

You would hope that, even in the competitive world of journalism, that the good journalists who had nothing to do with this will be able to move on untainted by the scandal. For those who were involved in raising the hopes of the Dowler family or listening in on the conversations of those who had lost loved ones in a war thousands of miles away you just hope that along with the bent coppers who sold them the information that they get their just desserts somewhere down the line.