The News of the World to close

[tomjackson]

Ha! www.thesunonsunday.co.uk became a registered domain on Tuesday.

First issue 17.07.11 or I'm a monkey's uncle.

Just a though, the advertisers that pulled out of NOTW to protect their brands from the scandal, can they really just go over to the Sun on Sunday when everybody knows it's just going to be notw reincarnate?
Most notw reaaders might be happy to buy the Sun on Sunday but without the advertisers on board it won't succeed. The situation is unprecidented, I'm not so sure the outcome will be so predictable.

I bet it will end up as a film one day...

Well only Ford had actually pulled anything, I believe? And that was only a suspension of advertising "pending TNOTW's own investigation". Everyone else was only considering removing adds. And nobody had so much as thought about taking adverts from any of their other titles.

A changed name and editor and they'll all be back on board fully.

No there were more, O2 and Virgin among them.  Well they were trying to pull but magazines had been printed and sealed, this is why NOTW decided to suspend themselves.

But you're probably right, they are just playing the game, they are all in bed with each other soon enough....

[nfe]

Andy Coulson lifted and police seize lots of evidence.

Judge-led judicial enquiry underway. One hopes for significant impact on the MET, News International, and other papers who will blatantly have done the same thing (we know that The Observer had employed Glenn Mulcaire already). Though one doesn't think it all that likely.

Notably, STILL, years down the line, nobody has attempted to take evidence from News International or TNOTW offices.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14077405

[ToneMonkey]

As it's the dodgy media reporting on the dodgy medias wrong doing, I'm kind of expecting all this to slowly fizzle out and die over the next few months.  I think all of them are going to have skeletans in the closet, so it's not in their best interests to go too deep on this.

On a similar note, anybody noticed how the media (all the media as far as I'm aware) haven't even mentioned wikileaks for some time?  More than a little dodgy I think.

[nfe]

The Guardian cover it now and again, that's about it.

Assange's extradition hearing is in a few days, too. 200+ days under house arrest. We'll see if the result makes the papers.

[Dr. Stein]

I'm sort of surprised this latest scandal has been such a big deal if I'm honest. It's a despicable thing to do, but tabloid journalists have been doing despicable things on a regular basis for as long as I can remember. And I suspect much longer than that, too.

[tomjackson]

I'm sort of surprised this latest scandal has been such a big deal if I'm honest. It's a despicable thing to do, but tabloid journalists have been doing despicable things on a regular basis for as long as I can remember. And I suspect much longer than that, too.

It's probably a big deal becuase one of the worlds biggest newspapers, one with greater circulation than any in the USA, has closed down after 168 years and becuase of a scandal that involves politicians, corruption, the police and a media tycoon.

Other than that it's not a big deal at all.  Not compared to stubbing your toe.....

[Dr. Stein]

^ Well the NOTW closing is a big deal, what I don't get is who the phone hacking stuff led to it closing. Tabloids do and are accused of awful things all the time.

[Ian Price]

The big story is all about 'normal' members of the public getting their phones hacked due to terrible events in their life. Everyone knows that famous people, politicians etc are likely to have their private life exposed by journalists via phone hacking and other such practices. Perhaps the general public felt less sympathy for them as they are wealthy and having this stuff go on is an occupational hazard.

When it came to normal members of the public it started getting unacceptable and morally wrong. Other newspapers/media sources reporting on it as a scandal are at best hypocritical.

[MrBump]

^ yeah.  It reached a sort of tipping point.

Where I'm uncomfortable though, is the new media frenzy that's trying to define public opinion - loads of sh!tty stuff going on, but I get the sense that I'm still being manipulated - the news organisations ALWAYS manipulate us, public opinion isn't REFLECTED by the press, it's DEFINED by the press.

Pro Murdoch/Anti Murdoch - information and opinion is still being defined by the media.

[shobet]

Interestingly there are rumours coming out about the axing of the paper being planned as far back as November as a sop to ease the BSkyB deal!

Whilst some of what may come out could well be bollocks, there may be some soon to be unemployed journos with some very illuminating stories.

This could get really interesting...

[Ian Price]

YEp - I'm wondering what's going to happen if/when Coulson etc go to court. After this there will surely be book deals for those that were heavily involved. I would love to read about what happened although that just feeds the media machine!

[Dmoney]

I think this is a really big deal. I was watching the News 24 comments show and someone emailed in to say this whole thing doesn't deserve 5mins of coverage anywhere, what a stupid opinion.

I started writing some big thing about how I feel on this but sacked it off. Every system we rely on has elements of corruption from top to bottom. Everyone carries on eating, sleeping & working just like everyone is meant to.

humanity is the devil.

[nfe]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14142307

BSkyB takeover attempt withdrawn.

[Philly Q]

I still wonder if it'll all go away for a while and then, a bit further down the line, the BSkyB takeover will just quietly happen after all.

That said, the Murdoch backlash does seem to be steamrollering - questions being asked in Australia and the USA now.

[nfe]

I think they'll certainly push the takeover again in a year or two.

However, if they US gets wired into the 9/11 hacking he'll be in serious, serious bother. The company is already being investigated in the US under their foreign corruption laws for paying UK police officers.