
Newspaper to close its doors over hacking scandal. - dspillett
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14070733
======
v21
Some (unknown) person registered the domains thesunonsunday.co.uk and
thesunonsunday.com a few days ago. ( [http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-
bin/whois.cgi?query=thesunonsunda...](http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-
bin/whois.cgi?query=thesunonsunday.co.uk) )

And a few weeks ago Rebekah Brooks announced that editorial roles would be
merged between the Sun and the News of the World. (
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/jun/28/newsi...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/jun/28/newsinternational-
rebekahwade?CMP=twt_gu) )

So I think Ken Clarke said it when he said: "All they're going to do is
rebrand it." ( <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14070856> )

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Losing the brand is a significant act - the largest-selling in Britain. I
would expect they would try to save what was worthwhile from the company, as
any loyal employer would.

~~~
v21
Why, yes it is. But less important to them than losing the BSkyB merger. Or,
it would seem, Rebekah Brooks.

And the paper was largely finished by this point. No advertisers, no readers,
an utterly tarnished brand...

But yes, the Beeb has just reported that employees will be placed at other
titles within NI. But I would be surprised if they didn't still lose some
headcount. After all, most newspapers have been trying to shed employees the
last few years. The announcement that they were going to merge some functions
between The Sun and the News Of The World was largely motivated by that.

~~~
speckledjim
> No advertisers, no readers, an utterly tarnished brand...

hmm where do you get that from? All sources point to NOTW having the highest
readership of any sunday paper.

eg <http://www.nrs.co.uk/toplinereadership.html>

~~~
cstross
Yesterday's news:

"Procter & Gamble, Asda and Tesco consider pulling News of the World ads

Coca-Cola GB and other major brands voice concerns as Halifax, Co-op, Vauxhall
and Virgin Hollidays join ad exodus"

\-- The Guardian

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/06/news-of-the-
worl...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/06/news-of-the-world-
advertising)

Let me emphasize, _that was yesterday_. The trickle turned into a flood and
then a tsunami today: by the time NewsCorp announced the closure of "News of
the World" they only had one major advertiser left on board.

~~~
speckledjim
How did I know you'd be citing the Grauniad...

They have by far the highest readership of any sunday paper. That wouldn't
evaporate overnight.

~~~
cstross
You knew I'd be citing the Grauniad _because they're the only national
newspaper that was covering the story in depth_. (Until The Independent jumped
on board, late in the day.) The Murdoch press and their rival tabloids were
all keeping mum, and The Telegraph wasn't touching it either (possibly out of
a misplaced sense of loyalty to the PM).

Politicians and rival media outlets are afraid of the NewsCorp empire. They
own 30% of the UK newspaper market and a big chunk of its TV programming, and
they have long memories. Not people you would want to have holding a grudge
against you if you worked in that industry or had to run for re-election.

~~~
seabee
Actually the Telegraph ran several articles on the issue, including front
pages. They are hardly fans of Murdoch. The Guardian really went for it
though.

~~~
v21
Yeah, the Telegraph have been going great guns recently. But the Guardian have
been hammering away at this for yonks.

(I am reminded of the expenses scandal - The Guardian had a journalist who was
petitioning the government to release the expense data for years, but didn't
get anywhere except repeated trips to the courtroom. Then the Telegraph gets
copies leaked from within the expenses office. It's a dirty world out
there...)

------
dspillett
While some of the "hacking" was no more than calling into voicemail accounts
with no pin/password set (though most instances would have involved at least
caller-id spoofing), it will hopefully (yeah, right, says the cynic in me)
make the tabloid rags more careful about overstepping their bounds in future.

The scandal, which blew up massively again after evidence was presented of
them interfering with a missing-persons/murder enquiry and has only got worse
after evidence that the families of bombing victims and those injured/killed
in overseas conflicts were also subject to similar invasion of privacy, has
caused significant activity in government and a large amount of embarrassment
for News International - possibly to the point of threatening their attempt to
buy the rest of Sky.

I wonder how many more phone and email hacking/monitoring scandals, involving
the media or other organisations, will drop out of the woodwork following (or
during the investigation of) this one...

edit: removed the quotes from "news"paper in the title. A tad hypocritical of
me to editorialise like that while taking shots at a tabloid!

~~~
ceejayoz
> While some of the "hacking" was no more than calling into voicemail accounts
> with no pin/password set...

Taking stuff from my house is still robbery even if I left the front door
open.

~~~
speckledjim
Not a great analogy. Nothing was taken.

It would be more accurate to say that you left your curtains open, and someone
took a picture of the inside of your house through the windows.

Maybe an invasion of privacy, but not theft.

~~~
tptacek
This is totally besides the point. He was simply responding to the notion that
the ease of the act mitigated the severity.

------
JonnieCache
I have been watching this delicious scandal developing week by week, day by
day and recently hour by hour, and I _never_ expected this. Wow. There must be
a _lot_ of skeletons in the cupboard if this was murdoch's choice of
preemptive action against the upcoming judicial enquiry.

Edit: thinking about it, the enquiry will go ahead regardless. This is more to
do with protecting rebekah brooks and the sky merger. He must really like
brooks.

~~~
cstross
Brooks is a neighbour of, and close personal friend of, the Prime Minister.

------
AlexMuir
All this attention being paid to News International is distracting from the
more worrying issues:

\- Why the police have utterly failed to investigate this.

\- Why the phone companies aren't being hammered for security lapses. Data
Protection Act anyone??

\- What other papers have done the same. The News of the World is in the same
building as The Times, and under the same ownership as The Sun. I don't
believe those two papers are clean either.

~~~
pavel_lishin
> \- Why the phone companies aren't being hammered for security lapses. Data
> Protection Act anyone??

What security lapses? Honestly asking, the article didn't seem to mention
anything.

~~~
AlexMuir
I've not read into the technicalities of it, but it seems extraordinary that
all four mobile operators would have voicemail that is wide open. Maybe it
wasn't all of them? Nothing's been said about that. And I think that the Data
Protection Act might make losing personal data an offence of strict liability,
that is to say one doesn't need to prove any negligenct. The fact that the
data was lost is enough.

~~~
pavel_lishin
You mean that when you open an account, your voicemail box originally does not
have a PIN number at all?

~~~
seabee
It comes set with a default number. Given they have to send you personalized
details anyway (phone number etc.) how hard would it have been to randomize it
like banks do?

They should take some of the blame for it. But nobody seems to care.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Oh, it's the same for everyone? Miserable.

------
corin_
_Labour MP Tom Watson told Sky News it was "a victory for decent people up and
down the land, and I say good riddance to the News of the World"._

Couldn't have put it better myself. (Side note, Tom Watson is one of the few
MPs in this country supporting the games industry, which makes me like him
already.)

Sadly The Sun will obviously just add Sundays, as suggested in the piece, but
still, one less piece of shit to see on news stands I guess.

~~~
speckledjim
A large amount of people enjoy reading these papers. Just as a large number of
people enjoy watching X-Factor, big brother, and other things you may not
enjoy.

It's sad to see such intellectual crap condemning the masses for enjoying what
they enjoy.

If you don't enjoy reading a newspaper, don't buy it.

~~~
corin_
It's not the same thing, though. If the entire country watches big brother,
that's entertainment. Do I understand why they enjoy it, no (though I do enjoy
X Factor!).

Reading a terrible newspaper is different, and worse. They're not just getting
entertainment, they're getting _news_ , they're getting their world view and
their political beliefs influenced by it. That's the difference.

~~~
speckledjim
IMHO You're incorrect. The line between news and entertainment is an arbitrary
one.

Who are you to tell me not to watch Fox News? Why shouldn't I buy a tabloid
paper to see who some celebrity has had an affair with?

You're inflicting your views of what is "good for the masses" on others.

If the masses want to be misinformed, non-intellectual gossip merchants (Which
basically they do), let them.

~~~
corin_
While I do look down on celebrity gossip reading, I'm aware that that makes me
a snob. However, that's not the issue I have here.

My issue is with the way papers like this, and indeed Fox News, report _real_
news, _important_ news. Reading celebrity gossip may be something that I don't
understand, but it's not something than affects me, whereas the actual news,
that has a very real impact on people's views on politics, society, the world
and so on. That is something we should all care about.

~~~
speckledjim
Once again though, you're trying to impose your views on others.

If people want to read the bible, and believe it as factual "news", they
should be able to.

As I say, if people want to live in blissful ignorance, they should be allowed
to do that.

~~~
corin_
And when they read the bible and decide that being gay is a crime, or one of
the many other terrible things in that book, you're OK with that?

~~~
speckledjim
yes. I believe that people should have the freedom to believe what they like,
as long as it doesn't encroach on others rights.

------
JamisonM
Some choice quotes:

"Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or
adequately pursued."

"As a result, the News of the World and News International wrongly maintained
that these issues were confined to one reporter."

"The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession
of the facts. This was wrong."

"The company paid out-of-court settlements approved by me. I now know that I
did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter
of serious regret."

Just read it, it is all complete bullshit, who honestly believes that he did
not have the "complete picture" when those settlements were made... Let's face
it, settlements were made precisely because they HAD the complete picture.
Does anyone think that they did not have "full possession of the facts"? This
is careful phrasing to avoid admitting to lying to parliament which is what I
for one think they did.

"So, just as I acknowledge we have made mistakes.."

This is laughable, using double-speak in acknowledging mistakes that are not
the mistakes you actually made is meaningless.

~~~
shabble
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-
apology_apology#Mistakes_we...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-
apology_apology#Mistakes_were_made)

------
zipdog
The paper was likely to go into freefall, with major advertisers dropping it
in recent days, and the readership likely to drop sharply.

It will be interesting to see whether killing the paper makes the phone
hacking story go away (or at least lose a lot of its momentum) or whether a
few people will feel there's no reason not to spill more beans now.

I assume with the staff mostly folding into a Sunday edition of the Sun
(presumably) its really more a rebranding, and so they'll hope the story dies.

------
pavel_lishin
I wonder how many tabloids are attempting to break into voicemail boxes and
email accounts of News of the World employees to cover this.

Sharks circling one of their own wounded.

------
aj700
listening to the voicemail of technophobe A-list celebrities who have their
pin set to 0000 is absolutely Standard Journalistic Practice. I admit that and
know it, because I've never had to do it myself, but I am a journalist. Any
real hacker must take the position that they are essentially inviting people
to intercept their comms. They deserve everything they get. What, they expect
tabloids to voluntarily use the honour system?!

------
diogenescynic
Can they close down Fox News while they're at it?

~~~
anigbrowl
Gawker Media in actual journalism shocker: <http://gawker.com/5814150/roger-
ailes-secret-nixon>

edit: the silly headline is sort of thing you see in British tabloids. I
suppose it's not funny if you aren't familiar with the NotW.

------
JonnieCache
Keep hitting F5...

<http://hasrebekahbrooksbeensackedyet.com/>

------
lifeisstillgood
I think the most fascinating fact was the speed of turnaround. This has been
just on the radar of UK reporting for some years, with newspaper
investigations and TV documentaries digging into the first and so far only
convictions and doing everything but saying "And there is no way this was
limited to only one reporter"

But no-one cared enough to turn it into action.

Then suddenly a court had evidence "someone" had deleted voicemails from a
kidnap/rape/murder of a 13yr old. Within hours _everyone_ from the PM down had
hung them out to dry.

Overstepping the line is a herd instinct. I heard it on radio and just said
"someone has to go to jail".

I am just wondering if Murdoch's lawyers are saying "It could be you"

~~~
cstross
_Then suddenly a court had evidence "someone" had deleted voicemails from a
kidnap/rape/murder of a 13yr old. Within hours everyone from the PM down had
hung them out to dry._

Not just _any_ murder victim -- she was one of the victims of serial killer
Levi Bellfield, just recently convicted of multiple rape/murders. And the
deletion of voice mails (allegedly because Milly's voicemail box had filled
up, and the journalists wanted more material to work with, so they deleted
earlier messages to free up space) had mislead Milly Dowler's parents, _and
probably the police_ , into thinking she was still alive -- thus impacting an
investigation into a serial killer.

Let's also add that another assault/attempted abduction prosecution against
Bellfield had to be called off this week _due to the tabloid news media
prejudicing the jury_.

This goes beyond hacking and phone bugging and into the territory of
interfering with the judicial system, to the detriment of extremely serious
investigations and prosecutions.

~~~
rmc
A lot of the customers of the tabloids are the kind of people who think the
death penalty should be brought in for child abductions and how there are
pedophiles all over the internet. This is encouraged by these tabloids. Now it
looks like this tabloid was sleazily giving a missing girls parents false
hope, and interfering with the police who were trying to find her just to sell
some newspapers. They did things that their target market would not like.

------
anigbrowl
Let's hope this is the beginning of a trend.

~~~
retube
The Mail? Oh one can hope hope hope.

~~~
vixen99
Why do you say that?

~~~
JonnieCache
Indeed. The mail is ridiculous, and often highly dubious, but it is not
outright malicious like the redtops.

Pray for its improvement, not its demise.

~~~
vixen99
You are sadly continuing the perjorative drift with no beef. It's almost a
cliche to say a few rude words about it, isn't it? I wouldn't argue with that
view if it concerned the Sun or the News of the World (R.I.P - no, I'm joking)
though again, a critique minus the purple prose would be welcome.

Over the Anglosphere seventy million people read the Daily Mail. It's a highly
successful enterprise. I agree that that does not mean it cannot be
'ridiculous' or 'dubious' but it does suggest that a smidgeon of supporting
evidence for your view should be forthcoming. I read it most days and find it
amusing and interesting in its reporting on topics not covered in the British
broadsheets. Personally I enjoy a spot of reasonably-sourced gossip. I also
enjoy looking at pictures of nice girls on beaches. Probably I'm a lost soul.

And so, how would you improve it? Please don't construe my comment as
suggesting that that should not take place.

~~~
JonnieCache
Well they could stop with the ludicrous health "advice" for a start.

See: <http://kill-or-cure.heroku.com/>

Then there's the whole MMR thing, and the rest:
<http://www.badscience.net/category/media/papers-mail/>

