The scandal at News of the World, one of Rupert Murdoch’s UK tabloid papers, got so damning that Murdoch killed the paper, in hopes of saving the rest of his British media empire (and its cozy relations to top politicians).
The Sunday-only NOTW harkens back to 1843. It was one of the English-speaking world’s first true mass-market papers. From the start, it was heavy on scandal, gossip, gory crime, sports, and as much sex as censorship laws of the time allowed.
When I first found it at out-of-town newspaper stands in the 1980s, NOTW was a tentacle of the Murdoch octopus (and had been since 1969). It was big at the time on fun sex stories, such as “Cheeky Memoirs of the Wedding Photographers.”
This was around the time of Joe Jackson’s song “Sunday Papers,” about NOTW and its tabloid brethren.
In recent years, NOTW’s circulation dropped, from almost 9 million in its pre-Murdoch 1950s to under 3 million. The paper’s editors were ever on the prowl for the latest and dirtiest dirt on public figures. With daily tabloids (such as Murdoch’s Sun) and websites after the same dirt, NOTW went to extremes to get its own, exclusive dirt.
That led to the hacking of cell phones.
First, they tapped the phones of actors and soccer players.
Then the phones of politicians.
Then the phones of violent-crime victims and their families.
That was the last straw. Even Murdoch’s pet politicians turned against him.
It could just be that Murdoch has other agendas behind closing the paper, besides saving PR face.
After dumping this separate Sunday paper with its separate staff, he could theoretically re-enter the market later with a Sunday edition of The Sun, which could be relatively cheaper to produce and would share a single “brand.”
But for now, the enemies of right-wing sleaze media throughout the world can consider this at least a momentary victory.
UPDATE #1: The Economist notes a larger possible reason behind Murdoch’s extreme UK damage control. He’s trying to expand his holdings in satellite TV over there, a move that requires governmental approval. That business is far more profitable than all his UK print businesses combined.
UPDATE #2: Commentator Alison Frankel has another potential underlying reason for the Murdoch machination. She thinks Murdoch could transfer all of NOTW’s assets to a liquidation agent, who could destroy incriminating evidence.
UPDATE #3: Several U.S.-based commentators, including Will Bunch and John Nichols, insist (rightly, I believe) that Murdoch’s Fox “News” Channel is just as harmful to politics and society here as Murdoch’s papers are to politics and society across the pond. But neither Bunch nor Nichols seems to know what to do about it.
