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News of the World

News of the World

Overview
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations. Originally established as a broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...

 by John Browne Bell, the Bells sold to Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969 it was bought from the Carrs by Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

's media firm News Ltd. Reorganised into News International
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....

, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

, it was transformed into a tabloid in 1984. News of the World was the Sunday sister paper of The Sun. The newspaper concentrated on celebrity-based scoops and populist news. Its fondness for sex scandals gained it the nicknames News of the Screws and Screws of the World. It had a reputation for exposing national or local celebrities as drug users, sex freaks or criminals, setting up insiders and journalists in disguise to provide either video or photographic evidence, and phone hacking in ongoing police investigations. Sales averaged 2,812,005 copies per week in October 2010.
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Encyclopedia
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations. Originally established as a broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...

 by John Browne Bell, the Bells sold to Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969 it was bought from the Carrs by Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

's media firm News Ltd. Reorganised into News International
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....

, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

, it was transformed into a tabloid in 1984. News of the World was the Sunday sister paper of The Sun. The newspaper concentrated on celebrity-based scoops and populist news. Its fondness for sex scandals gained it the nicknames News of the Screws and Screws of the World. It had a reputation for exposing national or local celebrities as drug users, sex freaks or criminals, setting up insiders and journalists in disguise to provide either video or photographic evidence, and phone hacking in ongoing police investigations. Sales averaged 2,812,005 copies per week in October 2010.

From 2006, allegations of phone hacking began to engulf the newspaper. These culminated in the revelation on 4 July 2011 that, nearly a decade earlier, a private investigator hired by the newspaper had intercepted and deleted the voicemail of missing British teenager Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered. Amid a public backlash and the withdrawal of advertising, News International announced the closure of the newspaper on 7 July 2011. The scandal deepened when the paper was alleged to have hacked into the phones of families of British service personnel killed in action.

Senior figures on the newspaper have been held for questioning by police investigating the phone hacking and corruption allegations. Arrested on 8 July 2011 were former editor Andy Coulson
Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...

 and former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman is a former royal editor and reporter for the News of the World. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal Household.Goodman initially worked as a journalist on Nigel Dempster's gossip column in the...

, the latter jailed for phone hacking in 2007. The former executive editor Neil Wallis
Neil Wallis
Neil John Wallis is a former newspaper editor in the United Kingdom.-Early life:Wallis was born in Lincolnshire. He attended Skegness Grammar School.-Journalism:...

 was arrested on 15 July 2011 and former editor Rebekah Brooks, the tenth person held in custody, on 17 July 2011.

History



1843 to 1968


The newspaper was first published as The News of the World on 1 October 1843, by John Browne Bell in London. Priced at just three pence (equal to £ today), even before the repeal of the Stamp Act
Stamp Act
A stamp act is any legislation that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents. Those that pay the tax receive an official stamp on their documents, making them legal documents. The taxes raised under a stamp act are called stamp duty. This system of taxation was first devised...

 (1855) or paper duty (1861), it was the cheapest newspaper of its time and was aimed directly at the newly literate working classes. It quickly established itself as a purveyor of titillation, shock and criminal news. Much of the source material came from coverage of vice prosecutions, including transcripts of police descriptions of alleged brothels, streetwalkers, and "immoral" women.

Before long, the News of the World established itself as the most widely read Sunday paper, with initial sales of around 12,000 copies a week. Sales then suffered because the price was not cut following the abolition of newspaper taxes and the paper was soon no longer among the leading Sunday titles, selling around 30,000 by 1880, a greater number but a smaller proportion, as newspaper sales had grown hugely. The title was sold by the Bell family in 1891 to Lascelles Carr who owned the Welsh Western Mail. As editor, he installed his nephew Emsley Carr
Emsley Carr
Sir William Emsley Carr was a British newspaper editor, who edited the News of the World for more than fifty years.Carr was born and raised in the Hunslet district of Leeds...

, who held the post for 50 years. But the real engine of the paper's now quick commercial success was George Riddell
George Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell
George Allardice Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell , known as Sir George Riddell, Bt, between 1918 and 1920, was a British solicitor, newspaper proprietor and public servant.-Background and education:...

, who reorganised its national distribution using local agents. Matthew Engel
Matthew Engel
Matthew Lewis Engel is a British writer and editor who began his career in 1972. He worked on The Guardian newspaper for nearly 25 years, reporting on a wide range of political and sporting events including a stint as Washington correspondent beginning on 9/11. He now writes a column in the...

, in his book Tickle the Public: One Hundred Years of the Popular Press (Gollancz, 1996), says that the News of the World of the 1890s was "a very fine paper indeed". The paper was not without its detractors, though. As one writer later related:
By 1912, the circulation was two million and around three million by the early 1920s. Sales reached four million by 1939. This success encouraged other similar newspapers, of which the Sunday People, the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

, the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...

 and the Daily Mirror are still being published.

In 1928, the paper began printing in Manchester on the presses of the News Chronicle
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...

 in Derby Street, moving in 1960 into Thomson House, Withy Grove (formerly known as Kemsley House) when the News Chronicle closed. The move to Thomson House led to the immediate closure of the Empire News
Empire News
The Empire News was a Sunday newspaper in the United Kingdom.The newspaper was founded in 1884 in Manchester as The Umpire. A penny newspaper, it was the first successful provincial Sunday newspaper in England. Owned by H. S. Jennings, the Umpire was subtitled "A Sporting, Athletic, Theatrical...

, a paper printed there and mainly circulating in the North of England and Wales with a circulation of about 2.5 million. Officially the Empire News and News of the World merged but Thomson House was already printing the Sunday Pictorial (to become the Sunday Mirror) and Sunday Times and did not have any further capacity with the News of the World arriving.

The paper's motto was "All human life is there". The paper's name was linked with sports events as early as 1903 when the golfing tournament The News of the World Match Play Championship began (now under British PGA auspices). The News of the World Darts Championship
News of the World Darts Championship
The News of the World Individual Darts Championship was one of the first major organised darts competitions, which began in 1927. It became England's first national darts competition from 1947 until its demise in 1990...

 existed from 1927 on a regional basis and became a national tournament from 1947 to 1990. There was also a News of the World Championship in snooker from 1950 to 1959 which eclipsed the official professionals' competition for a number of years. In athletics, the Emsley Carr Mile
Emsley Carr Mile
The Emsley Carr Mile is an annual invitational athletics running event held in the United Kingdom over one mile for men. The race is now part of the London Grand Prix, and was won in 2010 by the Kenyan athlete Augustine Kiprono Choge.-History:...

 race was started in 1953 in memory of the former editor, and was still run in recent times. The paper's Football Annual was a long-standing publication, and a Household Guide and Almanac was also published at one time.

By 1950, the News of the World had become the biggest-selling newspaper in the world with a weekly sale of 8,441,000 and individual editions sold over 9 million copies.

Murdoch ownership


The newspaper passed into the hands of Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd.
News Limited
News Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The publicly listed company's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, Pay TV, National Rugby League, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets.News Limited...

 in 1969, following an acrimonious year-long struggle with Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire...

's Pergamon Press
Pergamon Press
Pergamon Press was an Oxford-based publishing house, founded by Paul Rosbaud and Robert Maxwell, which published scientific and medical books and journals. It is now an imprint of Elsevier....

. Maxwell's Czech origin, combined with his political opinions, provoked a hostile response to his bid from the Carrs and from the editor of the News of the World, Stafford Somerfield, who declared that the paper was—and should remain—as British as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

News Ltd. arranged to swap shares in some of its minor ventures with the Carrs and by December it controlled 40 percent of the NOTW stock. Maxwell had been supported by the Jackson family (25% shareholders), but Murdoch had gained the support of the Carr family (30%) and then-chairman William Carr.

In January 1969, Maxwell's bid was rejected at a shareholders' meeting where half of those present were company staff, temporarily given voting shares. It was Murdoch's first Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...

 acquisition. Maxwell accused Murdoch of employing "the laws of the jungle" to acquire the paper and said he had "made a fair and bona fide offer... which has been frustrated and defeated after three months of [cynical] manoeuvring." Murdoch denied this, arguing the shareholders of the News of the World Group had "judged [his] record in Australia."

Illness removed Sir William Carr from the chairmanship in June 1969, and Murdoch succeeded him.

The newspaper often had to defend itself from libel charges and complaints to the Press Council (later the Press Complaints Commission
Press Complaints Commission
The Press Complaints Commission is a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC is funded by the annual levy it charges newspapers and magazines...

) as a result of certain news-gathering techniques, such as entrapment, and contentious campaigns. Some of the best-known cases have been the "Bob and Sue" case with reporter Neville Thurlbeck
Neville Thurlbeck
Neville Thurlbeck is a British journalist who worked for the tabloid newspaper News of the World for 21 years. He reached the position of news editor before returning to the position of chief reporter. Thurlbeck was arrested in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:In 1998 Thurlbeck was...

, and various cases involving journalist Mazher Mahmood
Mazher Mahmood
Mazher Mahmood is an undercover reporter with The Sunday Times newspaper. He previously spent 20 years working for the defunct British tabloid newspaper News of the World. He has been dubbed as "Britain’s most notorious undercover reporter."...

.

From 1981 a magazine (Sunday) was included with the paper, and in 1984 the paper itself changed from broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...

 to tabloid format. The paper was printed in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, Liverpool, Dinnington
Dinnington
Dinnington is a town in rural South Yorkshire, England, and part of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham. It is roughly equidistant from Sheffield, Rotherham and Worksop, and is located at an elevation of about 100 metres above sea level....

 near Sheffield, Portsmouth and Glasgow, with a separate edition produced in Belfast. It was also printed at a number of sites abroad including Dublin, Madrid, Brussels, Cyprus and Orlando in Florida, USA.

In 1985, the News of the World moved out of Thomson House when the building was bought by the tycoon Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire...

 (and renamed Maxwell House) and after a short spell on the Daily Express presses in Great Ancoats Street moved to a new plant at Knowsley on Merseyside.

End of publication


It was announced on 7 July 2011 that, after 168 years in print, the newspaper would print its final edition on 10 July 2011 following revelations of the ongoing phone hacking scandal, with the loss of 200 jobs. The paper announced that all profits from the final edition – 74 pence out of the £1 cover price – would go to "good causes", and advertising space would be given to charities; the remaining 26 pence for each copy went to retailers selling the paper and to wholesalers.

Downing Street
Downing Street
Downing Street in London, England has for over two hundred years housed the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now synonymous with that of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, an...

 said it had no role in the decision. James Murdoch
James Murdoch (media executive)
James Rupert Jacob Murdoch is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and currently serves as chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, Europe, and Asia, overseeing assets such as News International , SKY Italia , Sky Deutschland, and STAR TV .He sits on the News...

 has claimed that the company is fully co-operating with ongoing police investigations.

The 10 July 2011 edition of the News of the World carried its final headline, "Thank You and Goodbye", superimposed on top of a collage of past front pages. The back cover featured a quote from George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

 in 1946, and a recent quote from a NotW reader. The final edition also included a 48-page pullout documenting the history of the paper. On 9 July 2011, after production of the final edition wrapped, editor Colin Myler led the staff out of the building, where he held a press conference thanking the staff and its readers, concluding, "In the best tradition, we are going to the pub." In the paper's final editorial, the unsigned statement says that "Phones were hacked, and for that this newspaper is truly sorry... there is no justification for this appalling wrongdoing." The final edition sold 3.8 million copies, about a million more than usual. The company subsequently announced it would be giving revenues from the last edition, some £2.8 million, to charity.

There is speculation that News International will launch a Sunday edition of The Sun to replace the News of the World. The internet URLs sunonsunday.co.uk, thesunonsunday.co.uk and thesunonsunday.com were registered on 5 July 2011 by News International Newspapers Limited. A similar URL sunonsunday.com is not affiliated, having been registered in Italy on 24 September 2007.

Editors

1843: John Browne Bell
1855: John William Bell
1877: Walter John Bell and Adolphus William Bell
1891: Emsley Carr
Emsley Carr
Sir William Emsley Carr was a British newspaper editor, who edited the News of the World for more than fifty years.Carr was born and raised in the Hunslet district of Leeds...

1941: David Percy Davies
David Percy Davies
David Percy Davies was a British newspaper editor.Davies studied at Llandovery College, and joined the Welch Regiment in 1910. He also entered journalism, working at the South Wales Daily Post, then later moved to George Newnes in London. During World War I, he served as a major with the XI...

1946: Robert Skelton
Robert Skelton
Robert D. "Bob" Skelton was an American swimmer who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics where he won a gold medal in the 200 m breaststroke event. Skelton is the first American to set a world record for the 200 m breaststroke...

1947: Arthur Waters
Arthur Waters
Arthur George Waters was a British newspaper editor.Waters grew up in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, and began his career in journalism with the Barry Dock News. He subsequently became a sub-editor at the Western Mail and the Evening Express in Cardiff, then joined the News of the World in 1914...

1953: Reg Cudlipp
Reg Cudlipp
Reginald Cudlipp was a British newspaper editor.Cudlipp was born in Cardiff and was the second of three brothers. He followed his older brother, Percy, to become a journalist on the Penarth News, before joined the Western Mail as a sub-editor...

1960: Stafford Somerfield
Stafford Somerfield
Stafford Somerfield was a British newspaper editor.Born in Barnstaple, Somerfield worked at the Express and Echo, then moved to London as a journalist on the Daily Telegraph and the News Chronicle...

1970: Cyril Lear
Cyril Lear
Cyril Lear was a British newspaper editor.Lear grew up in Plymouth, where he attended the Hoe Grammar School...

1974: Peter Stephens
Peter Stephens (journalist)
Peter Stephens is a former British journalist and newspaper editor.Stephens grew up in Nottingham, where he attended the Mundella Grammar School...

1975: Bernard Shrimsley
Bernard Shrimsley
Bernard Shrimsley is a British newspaper editor and writer. He was editor of The Sun and the News of the World . He launched the Mail on Sunday in 1980 and acted as a director of the paper from 1980 to 1982...

1980: Kenneth Donlan
Kenneth Donlan
Kenneth Donlan was a British newspaper editor.Donlan worked for the Daily Mail for 25 years at their offices in London and Manchester. In 1971 he moved to rival tabloid The Sun where he became news editor. He was briefly editor of the News of the World from 1980 to 1981 before returning to The Sun...

1981: Barry Askew
Barry Askew
Barry Askew is a former British newspaper editor.Askew grew up in Preston, and worked for the Lancashire Evening Post, winning the IPC National Press Awards Campaigning Journalist award in 1972, and soon becoming editor of the paper.In April 1981, Askew was appointed as editor of the News of the...

1981: Derek Jameson
Derek Jameson
Derek Jameson is a retired British tabloid journalist and broadcaster.As a child, Jameson was evacuated from London in WW2...

1984: Nicholas Lloyd
Nicholas Lloyd
Sir Nicholas Markley Lloyd, born , is a British former newspaper editor and broadcaster.Lloyd graduated from St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He edited the Sunday People from 1982 to 1983, then moved to edit the News of the World for a year from 1984, and finally edited the Daily Express from 1986 until...

1985: David Montgomery
David Montgomery (newspaper executive)
David Montgomery is a British newspaper editor, executive, proprietor and media investor....

1987: Wendy Henry
Wendy Henry
-Early life:Wendy moved with her twin sister Sara from her mother's house in St Annes on Sea to Manchester in the late 1960s to live with their father, a Jewish market trader. By the age of eighteen, she had a child....

1988: Patsy Chapman
Patsy Chapman
Patsy Chapman is a former British newspaper editor.Chapman grew up in Romford and worked on the magazine Boyfriend before becoming a reporter with the Romford Times. She then joined The Sun and was gradually promoted to become Deputy Editor...

1993: Stuart Higgins
Stuart Higgins
Stuart Higgins is a British public relations consultant and former newspaper editor.Higgins began his career as a reporter for a news agency, then began working for The Sun in 1979. He soon became the newspaper's Royal Correspondent, during which time he tested security at Highgrove House...

1994: Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan , known professionally as Piers Morgan, is a British journalist and television presenter. He is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children....

1995: Phil Hall
Phil Hall (journalist)
Phil Hall is a British PR consultant and former newspaper editor.Hall entered journalism in 1974, as a reporter on the Dagenham Post. He then moved to the Ilford Recorder and subsequently filled a sub-editor post on the Newham Recorder, but returned to reporting at the Sunday People...

2000: Rebekah Wade
Rebekah Wade
Rebekah Mary Brooks is a British journalist and former newspaper editor. She was chief executive of News International , having previously served as the youngest editor of a British national newspaper as editor of the News of the World and the first female editor of The Sun...

2003: Andy Coulson
Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...

2007: Colin Myler
Colin Myler
Colin Myler is a British former newspaper editor.Myler grew up in Widnes in Cheshire. He started his career working for the Catholic Pictorial news agency in Southport, before joining The Sun and then the Daily Mail. He was appointed news editor of the Sunday People, then moved to Today in 1985,...


Notable contributors

  • Norman Rae - Chief Reporter in 1950s - "legendary Fleet Street crime reporter... Norman Rae"
  • Bob Bird
    Bob Bird
    Bob Bird is the former editor of the Scottish edition of the defunct News of the World tabloid.He is best known for the widespread media coverage over his role in two trials involving former Scottish MSP Tommy Sheridan - the 2006 Sheridan v News International libel case and the 2010 HM Advocate v...

     – final Scottish News of the World editor
  • Victoria Newton
    Victoria Newton
    Victoria Newton is an English journalist and showbiz correspondent. She is best known for being the former editor of the Bizarre showbiz column of Rupert Murdoch's The Sun newspaper.-Early life:...

     – final deputy editor
  • Neville Thurlbeck
    Neville Thurlbeck
    Neville Thurlbeck is a British journalist who worked for the tabloid newspaper News of the World for 21 years. He reached the position of news editor before returning to the position of chief reporter. Thurlbeck was arrested in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:In 1998 Thurlbeck was...

     – mainly responsible for the Beckham/Loos story
  • Dan Wootton
    Dan Wootton
    Daniel John Wootton is a Kiwi commentator on entertainment news. He is the Showbiz Editor of Lorraine and was also the show-business editor of the News of the World until its closure in July 2011.-Career:...

     – showbusiness editor

Anti-paedophile campaign (2000)


The paper began a controversial campaign to name and shame
Name and Shame
To name and shame is to "publicly say that a person, group or business has done something wrong". It is used to discourage some kinds of activity by publishing the names of those involved.-Anti-social and criminal:...

 alleged paedophiles
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...

 in July 2000 following the abduction and murder of Sarah Payne in West Sussex (when her killer Roy Whiting was found guilty of the murder 17 months later, it emerged that he had a previous conviction for abduction and sexual assault against a child). The paper's decision led to some instances of action being taken against those suspected of being child sex offenders, which included several cases of mistaken identity, including one instance where a paediatrician had her house vandalised and another where a man was confronted because he had a neck brace
Cervical collar
A cervical collar is an orthopedic medical device used to support a patient's neck and head. It is also used by emergency personnel for victims of traumatic head or neck injuries, and can be used to treat chronic medical conditions....

 similar to one a paedophile was wearing when pictured. The campaign was labelled "grossly irresponsible" journalism by the then Chief Constable
Chief Constable
Chief constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry...

 of Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire Constabulary
Gloucestershire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire in England...

, Tony Butler. The paper also campaigned for the introduction of 'Sarah's Law' to allow public access to the Sex Offenders Register.

Phone hacking scandal



In 2006, reporters at the paper used private investigators to illegally gain access to hundreds of mobile phone voicemail accounts held by a variety of people of interest to the newspaper. In 2007 the paper's royal correspondent, Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman is a former royal editor and reporter for the News of the World. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal Household.Goodman initially worked as a journalist on Nigel Dempster's gossip column in the...

, pleaded guilty to illegal interception of personal communication and was jailed for four months; the paper's editor, Andy Coulson
Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...

, had resigned two weeks earlier. In 2009/2010, further revelations emerged on the extent of the phone hacking, and how it was common knowledge within the News of the World and its News International
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....

 parent. According to a former reporter at the paper, "Everyone knew. The office cat knew," about the illegal activities used to scoop stories. On 17 January 2011, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 reported that Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator paid by the paper, testified that he had been asked by the newspaper's leadership to hack voicemail accounts on its behalf. In April 2011, attorneys for the victims alleged that as many as 7,000 people had their phones hacked by the News of the World; it was further revealed that the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

, had attempted to pressure Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...

 and Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 MPs to "back away" from investigating the scandal. Three journalists on the newspaper were initially arrested: Ian Edmondson
Ian Edmondson
Ian Edmondson is a British tabloid journalist. He was the news editor at the News of the World. Edmondson was arrested by the Metropolitan police in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:...

 and Neville Thurlbeck
Neville Thurlbeck
Neville Thurlbeck is a British journalist who worked for the tabloid newspaper News of the World for 21 years. He reached the position of news editor before returning to the position of chief reporter. Thurlbeck was arrested in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:In 1998 Thurlbeck was...

 on 5 April and James Weatherup on 14 April. The newspaper "unreservedly" apologised for its phone hacking activities during April 2011. On 4 July 2011, it was disclosed that potential evidence had been deleted in spring 2002 from the hacked voicemail account of Milly Dowler, then missing, but later found to have been murdered.

2006 reward for information on murders


On 13 December 2006 the newspaper announced that it was offering up a record breaking reward of £250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of five prostitutes around Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

. Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

. The reward went unclaimed; Steve Wright
Steve Wright (serial killer)
Steven Gerald James Wright is an English serial killer, also known as the Suffolk Strangler. He is currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, Suffolk...

 was arrested on suspicion of murder six days later following the use of unrelated information to link him to the murders. He was found guilty of all five murders at his trial 14 months later and sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

.

"Fake sheikh" cricket scandal


In August 2010, News of the World reporter and undercover journalist Mazher Mahmood posed as a "Fake Sheikh" to expose a cricket bookie named Mazhar Majeed
Mazhar Majeed
Mazhar Majeed is a British Pakistani sporting agent and bookmaker who came under police investigation in 2010 following reports of cricket 'match fixing' after a News of the World sting operation. On Saturday August 28, 2010, he was arrested by the Scotland Yard for allegedly fixing a Test match...

 who claimed Pakistani cricketers had committed spot-fixing
Spot-fixing
Spot-fixing refers to illegal activity in a sport where a specific part of a game is fixed. Examples include something as minor as timing a no ball or wide delivery in cricket or timing the first throw-in or corner in association football. Spot-fixing attempts to defraud bookmakers illegally by...

 during Pakistan's 2010 tour of England. In November 2011, Salman Butt
Salman Butt
Salman Butt is a former Pakistani cricketer who was a regular Test and ODI left-handed opening batsman. He made his Test debut on 3 September 2003 in the third Test against Bangladesh, and a year later made his ODI debut against West Indies on 22 September 2004. He was appointed captain of the...

 and Mohammad Asif were found guilty by a London court on criminal charges relating to spot-fixing. Mohammad Amir and Mahjeed had entered guilty pleas on the same charges.

Links to police corruption


In a September 2010 interview broadcast on 7 July 2011 on the BBC Radio 4 news programme The World at One
The World At One
The World at One, or WATO for short, is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs programme, which is broadcast from 1pm to 1:30pm from Monday to Friday. The programme describes itself as "Britain's leading political programme. With a reputation for rigorous and original...

, former News of the World features editor Paul McMullan made an admission relating to police corruption. He told of having used material obtained by a colleague's bribery of a police officer as the basis of a series of articles published over several years on Jennifer Elliott, the daughter of the actor Denholm Elliott
Denholm Elliott
Denholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits...

. He stated, 'The going rate for that kind of thing might have been two to five hundred pounds and that would have been authorised, and he [i.e. the police officer] would have been paid... and he would have been on the lookout for another story...' The articles described Ms Elliott's destitute situation and stated that she had worked as a prostitute. Jennifer Elliott killed herself in 2003. In Mr McMullan's opinion the News of the World – specifically, his own articles – contributed significantly to her suicide. In 2011, the paper knowingly used private investigators to gain stories from corrupt police officers.

Libel actions


  • In 2005, England footballer David Beckham
    David Beckham
    David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...

     and his wife Victoria brought a legal action against the paper seeking libel damages over an article that carried the headline "Posh and Becks on the Rocks"; suggesting that their marriage was under pressure. The legal action was withdrawn in 2006 and "resolved on a confidential basis," according to the couple's spokeswoman Jo Milloy.
  • In April 2006, England footballer Wayne Rooney
    Wayne Rooney
    Wayne Mark Rooney is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team...

     received £100,000 in damages from the publishers of the News of the World and its sister paper The Sun
    The Sun (newspaper)
    The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...

     over articles falsely reporting he had slapped his fiancée Coleen (now his wife). Both had always denied the reports.
  • In June 2006, England footballer Ashley Cole
    Ashley Cole
    Ashley Cole is an Barbadian-English professional footballer who plays for Chelsea and the England national team. He plays as a left-back and has been named one of the best in the world....

     received damages from the publishers of the News of the World over articles incorrectly alleging the footballer had used a mobile phone as a gay sex toy, just weeks before his marriage to pop star Cheryl Tweedy
    Cheryl Cole
    Cheryl Ann Cole is an English pop and R&B recording artist, songwriter, dancer, actress and model. She rose to fame in late 2002 when she auditioned for the reality television show Popstars: The Rivals on ITV. The programme announced that Cole had won a place as a member of the girl group, Girls...

    . Together with its sister paper The Sun, the News of the World paid Cole £100,000 to settle the case.
  • In July 2006, a libel action brought by the Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan came to court in Edinburgh. Sheridan denied allegations, made by the newspaper in November 2004 and January 2005, that he had an affair, engaged in group sex
    Group sex
    Group sex is sexual behavior involving more than two participants. Group sex can occur amongst people of all sexual orientations and genders...

     and attended a swinger's
    Swinging
    Swinging or partner swapping is a non-monogamous behavior, in which both partners in a committed relationship agree, as a couple, for both partners to engage in sexual activities with other couples as a recreational or social activity...

     club in Manchester. Sheridan won the case and was awarded £200,000 in damages. The newspaper intends to appeal against the jury's decision, and has refused to pay out the money; Sheridan and his wife Gail were charged with perjury; the court case commenced on 4 October 2010. Charges against Gail were dropped and she was acquitted on 17 December 2010. Tommy was subsequently convicted on 23 December 10. The case was the longest perjury trial in Scottish history.
  • In 2008 in the invasion of privacy case Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited the President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Max Mosley
    Max Mosley
    Max Rufus Mosley is the former president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , a non-profit association that represents the interests of motoring organisations and car users worldwide...

     challenged the News of the World newspaper which had alleged on 30 March 2008 that he had been involved in a sadomasochistic sex act involving several female prostitutes, when they published a video of the incident recorded by one of the women, and published details of the incident. The case resulted in Mosley being awarded £60,000 (approx. ) in damages.
  • In January 2010 Norwich City Football Club started legal proceedings against the News of the World after they published an article, "Canaries on Brink" on 24 January 2010 claiming that the club had begun the processes of going into administration.
  • In February 2010, the Hollywood couple Brad Pitt
    Brad Pitt
    William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...

     and Angelina Jolie
    Angelina Jolie
    Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...

     made plans to sue the News of the World after it published allegations about their relationship
    Brangelina
    Brangelina is a celebrity supercouple consisting of American actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Pitt has appeared in over 40 major films, including 12 Monkeys , Ocean's Eleven , and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , while Jolie has appeared in over 30 major films, including Girl, Interrupted...

    .
  • In June 2011, the UK Press Complaint Commission (PCC) gave Yasir Hameed
    Yasir Hameed
    Yasir Hameed Qureshi is a Pakistani cricketer. He scored two centuries on his Test debut against Bangladesh, becoming only the second player to do so...

    , Pakistani Cricketer, a victory by ordering the News of the World to remove a video and story about Yasir Hameed from its website.
  • Also in 2011, footballer Artur Boruc
    Artur Boruc
    Artur Boruc is a Polish footballer who plays for Serie A club Fiorentina as a goalkeeper. On 20 October 2008, Boruc was one of 55 players shortlisted for the FIFPro World XI Player Awards.-Pogoń Siedlce:...

     won an out-of-court settlement against the News of the World after the newspaper made untrue allegations about the goalkeeper being unfaithful to his girlfriend. Mr. Boruc was paid £70,000 and a full apology was issued.

Awards


British Press Awards
British Press Awards
The British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...

:
  • "Newspaper of the Year" (2005)
  • "Scoop of the Year" (2000, 'Archer quits'; 2005, 'Beckham's secret affair'; 2011, 'Cricket corruption')
  • "Front Page of the Year" (2004, 'Huntley in his cell')
  • "Reporter of the Year" (Gary Jones
    Gary Jones (journalist)
    Gary Jones is a British journalist, deputy editor of The People since June 2008. He was previously at the Daily Mirror and the News of the World....

    , 1995, Mazher Mahmood
    Mazher Mahmood
    Mazher Mahmood is an undercover reporter with The Sunday Times newspaper. He previously spent 20 years working for the defunct British tabloid newspaper News of the World. He has been dubbed as "Britain’s most notorious undercover reporter."...

    , 1999, 2011)

In popular culture

  • On the Beatles album Abbey Road, John Lennon
    John Lennon
    John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

     sings, on the song "Polythene Pam
    Polythene Pam
    "Polythene Pam" is a song written by John Lennon, credited to Lennon–McCartney, and performed by The Beatles on their album Abbey Road. The song is the part of the B-side medley in which Lennon declares that the title heroine "is so good looking but she looks like a man."-Background and...

    ", "She's the kind of a girl that makes the News of the World, yes you could say she was attractively built."
  • In 1977, British rock group Queen
    Queen (band)
    Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...

     released the album News of the World
    News of the World (album)
    News of the World is the sixth studio album by British rock group Queen, released in 1977. Containing hit songs "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions" and "Spread Your Wings", the album went 4x platinum in the US, 2x platinum in the UK, and achieved high certifications around the world as...

    , taking its name from the tabloid. The album was an international hit and went four times platinum in the United States and twice platinum in the United Kingdom.
  • In 1978, British new wave group The Jam
    The Jam
    The Jam were an English punk rock/New Wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped...

     recorded the song "News of the World
    News of the World (song)
    News of the World was a single by British group The Jam released on 11 March 1978. It reached #27 in the UK Singles Chart. "Aunties And Uncles " and "Innocent Man" appeared as its B-side...

    ", which had the lines "Don't believe it all. Find out for yourself. Check before you spread. News of the World" which was then adapted for the panel show Mock the Week
    Mock the Week
    Mock the Week is a British topical celebrity panel game hosted by Dara Ó Briain that launched in 2005. The game is influenced by improvised topical stand-up comedy, with several rounds requiring players to deliver answers on unexpected subjects on the spur of the moment.It is made by independent...

    .
  • In the 1981 film by John Landis
    John Landis
    John David Landis is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is known for his comedies, his horror films, and his music videos with singer Michael Jackson.-Early life and career:...

     An American Werewolf in London
    An American Werewolf in London
    An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 British-American horror film, written and directed by John Landis. It stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, and Griffin Dunne....

    , the protagonist David Kessler, played by David Naughton
    David Naughton (actor)
    David Walsh Naughton is an American actor and singer best known for his starring roles in the 1981 horror film An American Werewolf in London, the 1980 Walt Disney comedy, Midnight Madness, the 1984 comedies Hot Dog.....

    , watches a News of the World television ad, while in Nurse Alex's apartment.
  • In 1983, English-American rock group The Pretenders
    The Pretenders
    The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...

    , released their song "Back on the Chain Gang
    Back on the Chain Gang
    "Back on the Chain Gang" is a song by the English-American band The Pretenders, released as single by Sire Records in November 1982. The song was also released on The King of Comedy soundtrack album in March 1983 and later included on The Pretenders' next album Learning to Crawl in January 1984...

    ", featuring the lyrics "The phone, TV and the News of the World got into the house like a pigeon from hell..." Written by the group's singer, Chrissie Hynde
    Chrissie Hynde
    Christine Ellen "Chrissie" Hynde is an US musician best known as the leader of the rock/new wave band the Pretenders. She is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and has been the only constant member of the band throughout its history.-Early life and career:Hynde is the daughter of a part-time...

    , the song was about the band's experience of losing their guitarist, James Honeyman-Scott
    James Honeyman-Scott
    James Honeyman-Scott , commonly referred to as "Jimmy", was an English rock guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the band The Pretenders....

    , to a drug overdose, and these lines were in reference to the surviving members' inability to escape the story at the time.

External links

inactive, just says thank you and goodbye.
  • News of the World: Back in the Day slideshow by Life magazine
  • How the 'Screws' screwed its rivals Tim Luckhurst
    Tim Luckhurst
    Tim Luckhurst is Professor of Journalism at the University of Kent, and the founding head of the university's Centre for Journalism . He is best known as a former editor of The Scotsman...

    , The Independent
    The Independent
    The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

    , 19 February 2006
  • Social Media Campaign on Phone Hacking Scandal 7 July 2011