After some very distasteful practices being exposed, including the alleged hacking into the voice mail of a murdered schoolgirl, Murdoch is closing the News of the World, with Sunday being its last edition. Mind you, in the days of fish and chips being wrapped in newsprint, the NotW was considered unsuitable for such applications, being too dirty.
As someone who was outted by the above named scandal rag many years ago, the premise offered by their journalist was that it was human interest, I was a departmental head in the local NHS at the time, I'm not shedding a single tear.
I was very fortunate, I'd transitioned with the full support of my employer, but was still seeing patients, and one or two made reference to me of the article, which was embarrassing; and feedback from colleagues showed others had seen it too.
The tabloids make their living pursuing and enhancing human misery, be it celebrities or ordinary mortals like me, I'm not sure which is worse, their prurience in their search for dirt on people, or the society in which we live for its insatiable demand for said dirt. To me, both seem a sad reflection of each other and demonstrate evolution has a long way to go.
Angharad
Comments
sigh
My only experience of tabloid journalism is second hand and left of centre, but I am seriously unimpressed. I will never forget a question I was asked by a 'journalist' as a pointer to the 'direction' of a story. I refuse to be a part of it as much as I can. Yet I note a comment I heard last night as the news of the closing of said newspaper became widespread... 'yes, but if you and I and whoever did not buy the womens mags or the tabloids there would be no market, we have an insatiable appetite for gossip and sleaze...' True. So if the wider populace exercised some self restraint or moral judgement the world would be a nicer place. Yeah... good luck with that. I am not really a jaded cynic, but sometimes I feel the need to wallow a bit. Masochism as a moral exercise? Whatever. Sigh.
Kristina
News of the World
Wow! That is quite a shock. To suddenly close what is one of the oldest (168 years), and the best selling newspapers in the country is very surprising move.
I suspected that the paper was the most popular, but after googling the figures it is even more surprising. News of the World averaged 2.7 million readers in January, the highest readership of any Sunday paper by a large proportion, the next most popular being the Mail on Sunday at only 1.9 million readers. Only four Sunday papers break the 1 million readership mark in the UK.
This is a major change of landscape on the newspaper market, and could have some drastic effects as readers switch to other papers, or possibly cut out Sunday papers entirely to save money in the recession. I suspect we will see a price war emerge as the other papers scramble to gain readership.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if News International launches another paper in its place. I suspect that The Sun, its sister weekly paper, may end up being published 7 days a week to fill the void. The Sun has a readership of 3 million, which is almost the same as its two biggest competitors combined (Mail 2.1m and Mirror 1.1m).
A lot of people like to deride the News International papers, especially the BBC who like to try to ignore them when doing roundups of the headlines in the papers, but you can't deny that they are the most popular and commercially successful newspapers in this country.
Investigative journalism does have its place, and can provide a useful service. Indeed the News of the World has exposed many scandles over the years. However, I agree that they did go to far this time. I just hope that the isn't a knee-jerk reaction that stiffles the freedom of the press in the UK, as that could be a bad thing.
D.L.
168 years - not that old!
Greetings
168 years isn't that old, the local weekly paper has been published since 1690. You can find a few samples of those early stories on http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/nostalgia/beforethe1900s/
I've never bought the News of the World.
Brian
Scum
Well, that is my view of Dear Rupe and all of his rags. I too have featured in a couple of them, and as can be expected not in a way I would have chosen. Oddly, I now find myself in agreement with Ken "soft rape" Clark, in that it will merely be rebranded and relaunched. Hint to Murdoch: the "Sunday Sun" already exists, and it isn't yours.
A little more detail on the case Angharad mentions: they hacked the dead girl's voicemail, and not only did they listen to her messages but deleted some in the hope more might arrive.
Did I say 'scum'?
Sunday Sun vs Sun on Sunday
Sunday Sun may not be available as a name, but The Sun on Sunday is, and guess what website name a company associated with News International registered last week.
I'm sensing a very shrewd business move here. Ditch NotW and make The Sun 7 day, cutting staff numbers by up to 200 employees, with possibly little impact on sales. After all the Sun and NotW share readership.
The most popular paper by far, going 7 days a week, is virtually guaranteed to be a success. It may even encourage more people to buy a paper on Sunday.
D.L.
That word
When used in conjunction with either paper is inappropriate.
"Reader"
News of the World to close.
Angharad, there are many gossip magazines in the U.S. that do pretty much what News of the World did.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
As I Understand It...
...they're not even close, Stan.
Eric
Don't be so sure
The News of the World may be closing but, in practice, it will continue under another name (Sun on Sunday?) being just as sleazy as its fore runner.
In some ways this is a sad affair in that the current NOTW employees are being axed for something many (most/all?)had nothing to do with, yet Rebecca Brooks (formerly Wade) who was the editor when much of this phone hacking was going on remains as chief executive of Rupe's UK empire. At least Brook's successor as editor, Andy Coulson, looks like he may be charged as he's going to be arrested today. Let's hope Ms Brooks gets the push, too. Apparently the NOTW staff thought she gathered them to announce her resignation but instead sacked them and closed what was the UK's most successful newspaper, though it grieves me to say it. Nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the British public as Murdoch has demonstrated.
When I was in digs as a teenager in the 1950s working away from home, my old landlady, Mrs Edwards loved both her Daily Herald in the week and the NOTW on Sunday. Of course, I read it too and it was known as at best saucy but really just about as sleazy as it is now. It specialised in exposing all sorts of sex scandals by getting its journalists to pose as clients and gave rise to the closing sentence 'I made an excuse and left' ... yeah, right :)
I sympathise hugely with Angharad in the treatment the NOTW meted out to her at what must have been a difficult enough period in her life. From reading her stuff here and once meeting her in RL it seems she beat them anyway by being successful in her life since.
Robi
Out-And-Out Hypocrisy
My parents were basically nice people, but I can remember when I was a child of maybe nine or ten (1951-1952) that often they forbade me to read NotW on the grounds that I wasn't old enough!
When IS old enough to read about rape and seduction and the pecadilloes of the rich and famous and politicians, or to jeer at transsexuals and transvestites.
That's what that rag did. I refuse to call it a newspaper, and as soon as I realised that I was one of the people that they would have delighted in featuring, I stopped reading it. I dreaded being "Schoolboy Caught Dressed As Girl" or "Theatre Hat-Check Girl Is A Boy" with Candid-Camera pictures and lurid descriptions of my supposed exploits and sneering quotes from so-called friends.
But, as others have said, there was and is an enormous market for what they peddled...SMUT...and otherwise decent folk pored over it every Sunday....The News Of The Screws.
With modern technology they became even more prurient and intrusive. Good Riddance,
Joanne
Current website NoTW
I had a quick look at their website for a typical story, and found one, but I won't sully this site by posting a link. The story was about a 16-year-old M2F, and naturally the paper referred to 'him' exclusively with those pronouns and 'his' male name. The paper can be summed up as:
"The story too disgusting to tell! See pages 1,2,3,4,5...with exclusive pictures"
Newspapers
Over the years I've been the subject of, or quoted in may newspaper articles. I've also written for newspapers.
Anyone who think the editorial section of a newspaper is restricted to one or two pages is badly mistaken.
Rupert Murdock gives the masses what they want. In the USA we have FOX news. The majority of people who watch FOX believe it is reporting accurately and fairly, because that is what they want to believe. It harms journalism not only by the bilge it pours out, but by the license it provides the liberals to counter with MSNBC.
If BC teaches us anything it is that we want to read what makes us comfortable.
Angharad and Cyclist . . . I have felt similar pain and sued . . . a fool's task. The print world is ready willing and able to make life miserable for anyone who wants to try to fight a person who buys ink by the barrel.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Don't forget
It's not just the conservative media that has an agenda or bias built into their reporting. ALL media is biased to some extent, after all the reporting is done by humans and humans can't help viewing things through the filters of their beliefs and experience. A reporter for Rolling Stone magazine actually went on the campaign trail during the '72 presidential elections, covering not the campaigns but the media that was covering the campaigns. He was a bit surprised at the open liberal partisanship displayed by the regional and national media, both print and electronic.*
*"The Boys On The Bus" by Timothy Crouse (Still in print) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_on_the_Bus
Amazon listing http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Bus-Timothy-Crouse/dp/0812968204
Washington Post 2004 book review http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37323-2004Aug...
* * *
"Girls are like pianos, when they're not upright they're grand!" Benny Hill
Karen J.
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb