The end of the World

THE end of the World is nigh. But who would have thought it would be the end of the News of the World?

In its heyday, the News of the Screws, as it became known, was read by nine million people.

Famous for its celebrity scoops, during the Fifties it was the biggest-selling newspaper in the world.

In common with every other newspaper, sales have dwindled since then, but the paper still sells 2.6 million copies a week – more than any other UK Sunday title.

It was first published on October 1, 1843.

Queen Victoria was on the throne, Sir Robert Peel was Prime Minister and a popular novelist called Charles Dickens was starting his next story, a potboiler he planned to write in a matter of weeks – A Christmas Carol.

In marked contrast to many newspapers of the time, the News of the World was aimed at the working classes. Priced to sell at three pence, it was the cheapest paper of its time and soon established itself as the most widely read Sunday newspaper in the country.

From the start, the paper catered to readers’ thirst for salacious stories. It had a particular fascination with vice and carried extensive reports of brothels, prostitutes and “immoral”

women taken from police transcripts.

By 1912, the paper had a circulation of two million and rising. Its motto was “All human life is there”.

Not everyone liked it. The paper had already become a thorn in the side of the establishment, often exposing peccadillos they would rather remain secret.

Frederick Greenwood, editor of the respectable Pall Mall Gazette, when given a copy to read, put it straight in the bin, then thought his cook might read it, so took it out and burnt it.

The paper pioneered media sponsorship – the News of the World Match Play golf championship began in 1903 – and branched out with other publications such as the Household Guide, the NoW Almanac and its hugely popular football annual.

In 1935, the News of the World was so popular that it even numbered Winston Churchill among its columnists.

The paper was bought by Rupert Murdoch in 1969 after an acrimonious struggle with Robert Maxwell’s Pergamon Press.

Notable exposes included the revelation that TV presenter Richard Bacon had used cocaine, which led to him being axed from Blue Peter, that Bond girl Caroline Crossey had once been a man, that David Beckham had an inappropriate relationship with Rebecca Loos and that actor John Alford used drugs.

But not every exclusive went unchallenged.

Motor racing boss Max Mosley was filmed by the paper taking part in role-playing games with prostitutes in 2008. He subsequently won a court ruling that his privacy had been breached.

And a story that alleged Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan had attended a swingers’ club led to a drawn-out legal battle and an award of libel damages. Further action meant Sheridan was convicted of perjury.

The paper’s phone-hacking woes surfaced in 2006 when royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were arrested.

They were jailed the following year, and editor Andy Coulson resigned. The scandal continued to haunt the paper, with ongoing claims about phone hacking leading to Scotland Yard setting up a new investigation.

Revelations escalated and this week the public and political condemnation reached a peak.

Ironically, in the end, the News of the World had become a bigger scandal than anything its reporters had ever uncovered.

By the time the closure announcement was made, the paper allegedly only had four big advertisers left – BSkyB, Mars, British Gas and Tesco. Ford, Halifax, Co-op and Npower had already pulled their ads. The paper had lost annual ad revenue worth £8m in only 24 hours.

The News of the World brand, once one of the most powerful in the industry, had become toxic.

So what will take its place? It seems inevitable that the paper’s stablemate, The Sun, will become a seven-days-a-week title. Adding to rumours that the News of the World’s fate was decided days ago, it emerged last night that the website thesunonsunday.com was registered by persons unknown earlier this week.

Nicholas Grant, an analyst with Mediatrack, is certain Rupert Murdoch will not just throw in the towel, saying: “Initially, there is going to be a scramble for readership among the other papers. But (the paper’s parent company, News International) are not going to throw their readers away very easily. They are not going to want to surrender that audience.”

No doubt we will know more in the coming days, but one thing is for sure, as former Mirror editor and media commentator Roy Greenslade said last night: “The Screws has been screwed. Indeed, it screwed itself.”