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 Front page of the final issue | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | News Group Newspapers (News International) |
| Editor | Colin Myler |
| Founded | 1 October 1843; 182 years ago (1843-10-01) |
| Ceased publication | 10 July 2011; 14 years ago (2011-07-10) |
| Political alignment | Conservative |
| Headquarters | Wapping, London |
| Circulation | 2,606,397 (April 2011)[1] |
| Sister newspapers | The Sun,[2]The Times,The Sunday Times[3] |
| Website | newsoftheworld.co.uk (inactive, no longer updated) |
TheNews of the World was a weekly national "red top"tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in theUnited Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one of the highest English-language circulations.[4] It was originally established as abroadsheet by John Browne Bell, who identified crime, sensation and vice as the themes that would sell most copies.[5] The Bells sold toHenry Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969, it was bought from the Carrs byRupert Murdoch's media firmNews Limited. In 1984, as News Limited reorganised intoNews International, a subsidiary ofNews Corporation, the newspaper transformed into atabloid and became the Sundaysister paper ofThe Sun.
TheNews of the World concentrated in particular oncelebrity scoops,gossip and populist news. Its somewhat prurient focus onsex scandals gained it the nicknameScrews of the World.[6] In its last decade it had a reputation for exposing celebrities' drug use, sexual peccadilloes, orcriminal acts, by using insiders and journalists in disguise to provide video or photographic evidence, and covertphone hacking in ongoing police investigations.[7][8] Sales averaged 2,812,005 copies per week in October 2010.[9]
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 the voicemail of missing British teenagerMilly 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.[8][10] 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, alongside formerDaily Mirror editorPiers Morgan. Arrested on 8 July 2011 were former editorAndy Coulson and formerNews of the World royal editorClive Goodman, the latter jailed for phone hacking in 2007. The former executive editorNeil Wallis was arrested on 15 July 2011 and former editorRebekah Brooks, the tenth person held in custody, on 17 July 2011.
During a visit to London on 17 February 2012, Murdoch announced he was soon to launch a Sunday edition ofThe Sun, which acted as a replacement to theNews of the World. On 19 February 2012, it was announced that the first edition ofThe Sun on Sunday would be printed on 26 February 2012.[11] It would employ some formerNews of the World journalists.
The newspaper was first published asThe News of the World on 1 October 1843, by John Browne Bell in London.[12] Priced at three pence (equal to £1.55 in 2023), even before the repeal of theStamp act (1855) or paper duty (1861), it was the cheapest newspaper of its time[13] 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 lurid transcripts of police descriptions of alleged brothels,streetwalkers, and "immoral" women. In 1924 the newspaper sponsored the1924 Women's Olympiad held atStamford Bridge in London.
Before long, theNews of the World established itself as the most widely read Sunday paper, with initial sales of around 12,000 copies a week. Circulation had grown to 24,100 by 1845 and was 109,100 in 1854.[14] Sales then suffered because the price was not cut following theabolition 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 toHenry Lascelles Carr who owned the WelshWestern Mail. As editor, he installed his nephewEmsley Carr, who held the post for 50 years. The real engine of the paper's now quick commercial success, however, wasGeorge Riddell, who reorganised its national distribution using local agents.Matthew Engel, in his bookTickle the Public: One Hundred Years of the Popular Press (Gollancz, 1996), says that theNews 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:
Frederick Greenwood, editor ofThe Pall Mall Gazette, met in his club one day Lord Riddell, who died a few years ago, and in the course of conversation Riddell said to him, "You know, I own a paper."
"Oh, do you?" said Greenwood, "what is it?"
"It's called theNews of the World—I'll send you a copy", replied Riddell, and in due course did so. Next time they met Riddell said, "Well Greenwood, what do you think of my paper?"
"I looked at it", replied Greenwood, "and then I put it in the waste-paper basket. And then I thought, 'If I leave it there the cook may read it'—so I burned it!"[15]
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 whichThe Sunday People, theDaily Mail, theDaily Express and theDaily Mirror are still being published.
In 1928, the paper began printing in Manchester on the presses of theNews Chronicle in Derby Street, moving in 1960 into Thomson House, Withy Grove (formerly known as Kemsley House) when theNews Chronicle closed. The move to Thomson House led to the immediate closure of theEmpire News, a paper printed there and mainly circulating in the North of England and Wales with a circulation of about 2.5 million. Officially theEmpire News andNews of the World merged but Thomson House was already printing theSunday Pictorial (to become theSunday Mirror) andSunday Times and did not have any further capacity with theNews 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 TheNews of the World Match Play Championship began (now under British PGA auspices). TheNews of the World Darts Championship 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, theEmsley Carr Mile race was started in 1953 in memory of the former editor, and is still run annually. The paper'sFootball Annual was a long-standing publication (sponsoring it until 2008), and a Household Guide andAlmanac was also published at one time.
By 1950, theNews 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.
As with otherSunday newspapers, theNews of the World was published on Saturday wheneverChristmas Day fell on Sunday.
The newspaper passed into the hands of Rupert Murdoch'sNews Ltd. in 1969, following a year-long struggle withRobert Maxwell'sPergamon Press. Maxwell's Czech origin, combined with his political opinions, provoked a hostile response to his bid from the Carrs and from the editor of theNews of the World,Stafford Somerfield, who declared in an October 1968 front page leading article attacking Maxwell[16] that the paper was "as British as roast beef andYorkshire pudding".[17]
News Ltd. arranged to swap shares in some of its minor ventures with the Carrs and by December it controlled 40% 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 firstFleet Street 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.[citation needed]
Murdoch came under severe criticism in a television interview withDavid Frost after the newspaper published extracts, in late summer 1969, from the memoirs ofChristine Keeler. Keeler had been a central figure in theProfumo scandal which had emerged to public scrutiny in 1963. Murdoch regretted agreeing to the interview with Frost.[18] In February 1970, Stafford Somerfield was dismissed as editor after coming into conflict with Murdoch, whose takeover he had opposed.[19]
During the four decades of Murdoch's ownership, the newspaper had to frequently defend itself againstlibel charges as well as complaints to thePress Council (later thePress Complaints Commission) on accusations of certain news-gathering techniques, such asentrapment, and contentious campaigns. Some of the better-known of these were the "Bob and Sue" case with reporterNeville Thurlbeck, and various cases involving journalistMazher Mahmood.[20]
The newspaper, which had generally supported theConservative Party throughout its history (endorsingEdward Heath in the 1970 and both 1974 elections), maintained its political posture during the early years of the Murdoch era, whereas its weekday sisterThe Sun did not have a definitive allegiance, (supportingHarold Wilson'sLabour Party in1970, Heath inFebruary 1974 andJeremy Thorpe'sLiberal Party inOctober 1974) until the late 1970s when it became a strong supporter of the Conservative Party. Both newspapers later endorsedTony Blair'sNew Labour during the late 1990s and early 2000s before switching back to the Conservatives duringDavid Cameron's leadership.[citation needed]
Starting in 1981, a magazine supplement (Sunday) was included with the paper and, in 1984, the newspaper changed frombroadsheet to tabloid format. The paper was printed inHertfordshire, Liverpool,Dinnington near Sheffield, Portsmouth, Glasgow and Dublin, with a separate edition produced in Belfast. It was also printed at a number of sites abroad including Madrid, Brussels, Cyprus and Orlando in Florida, US.
In 1985, theNews of the World moved out of Thomson House when the building was bought by the tycoonRobert Maxwell (and renamed Maxwell House) and, after a short spell on theDaily Express presses in Great Ancoats Street, moved to a new plant at Knowsley on Merseyside.[citation needed]
In 2011 the then editor, Colin Myler, described it as "the greatest newspaper in the world" as it had won four awards at the British Press Awards. The award for News Reporter of the Year, went to Mazher Mahmood, the "fake sheikh" who hides his identity, for his exposé of corruption in the cricketing world. The paper also won top show-business reporter and magazine of the year.
It was announced on 7 July 2011 that, after 168 years in print,[12] the newspaper would print its final edition on 10 July 2011 following revelations of the ongoingphone 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.[21] Shutting the newspaper costNews Group Newspapers around £240m.[22]
Thegovernment of the United Kingdom said it had no role in the decision.[23]James Murdoch claimed that the company was fully co-operating with ongoing police investigations.[24]
The edition of 10 July 2011 of theNews of the World carried its final headline, "Thank You & Goodbye", superimposed on top of a collage of past front pages. The back cover featured a quote fromGeorge Orwell'sNineteen Eighty-Four that mentions the paper, and a recent quote from a NotW reader. The final edition also included a 48-page pullout documenting the history of the paper.[25] 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."[26] The paper's final, and unattributed, editorial, stated that "Phones were hacked, and for that this newspaper is truly sorry... there is no justification for this appalling wrongdoing."[21] The final edition sold 3.8 million copies, about a million more than usual.
News International launched a Sunday edition ofThe Sun to replace theNews of the World on 26 February 2012 following speculation.[27] The domain namessunonsunday.co.uk,thesunonsunday.co.uk andthesunonsunday.com were registered on 5 July 2011 by News International Newspapers Limited.[28]
 | This"criticism" or "controversy" sectionmay compromise the article'sneutrality. Please helpintegrate negative information into other sections or removeundue focus on minor aspects throughdiscussion on thetalk page.(March 2025) |
In early 1967, the newspaper ran a three-part feature entitled "Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You". The series described allegedLSD parties hosted bythe Moody Blues and attended by top stars includingthe Who'sPete Townshend andCream'sGinger Baker, and alleged admissions of drug use by leading pop musicians. The first article targetedDonovan (who was raided and charged soon after); the second installment (published on 5 February) targeted theRolling Stones. A reporter who contributed to the story spent an evening at the exclusive London club Blaise's, where a member of the Rolling Stones allegedly took severalBenzedrine tablets, displayed a piece ofhashish and invited his companions back to his flat for a "smoke". The article claimed that the member was singerMick Jagger, although the reporter had in fact been eavesdropping on guitaristBrian Jones.[35]
On 10 May 1967, Jagger,Keith Richards, and their friend art dealerRobert Fraser were arrested at Richards'Redlands estate inWest Wittering and charged with possession ofcannabis andamphetamines, while bandmate Jones' London house was also raided by police and he was arrested and charged with cannabis possession along with his friend Stanislas "Stash" Klossowski, son of French artistBalthus.[36] Jagger and Richards were tried at the end of June. On 29 June, Jagger was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for possession of four amphetamine tablets; Richards was found guilty of allowing cannabis to be smoked on his property and sentenced to one year in prison.[37][38] Both Jagger and Richards were imprisoned at that point, but were released on bail the next day pending appeal.[39]
TheNews of the World was rapidly identified by thehippy counterculture as the prime culprit for the imprisonments, which were seen as an attempt by the Establishment to send a collective message to a hedonistic young generation.International Times and activist and musicianMick Farren organised protests outside the Fleet Street offices of the newspaper. Protesters informed the paper's staff that their objective was "freeing the fucking Stones and closing down the fuckingNews of the World". Farren later credited his colleagueSue Miles with identifying the paper as a target for protest because, as she put it, "they were the bastards who started this" (with their feature on drugs in music). Farren reported that a second night of protests was broken up by officers fromCity of London Police, who beat him up and made a number of arrests.[40]
Criticism of the sentences also came from theNews of the World's future sister publicationThe Times, which ran an editorial entitled "Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?" in which conservative editorWilliam Rees-Mogg surprised his readers by his unusually critical discourse on the sentencing, pointing out that Jagger had been treated far more harshly for a minor first offence than "any purely anonymous young man".[41] On 31 July, the appeals court overturned Richards' conviction, and Jagger's sentence was reduced to aconditional discharge.[42] Brian Jones' trial took place in November 1967; in December, after appealing the original prison sentence, Jones was fined £1,000, put on three years' probation and ordered to seek professional help.[43]
Commenting on the closure in 2011 of the newspaper against which he had led protests 44 years earlier, Farren was in triumphant mood:
The British counterculture andThe News Of The World have had an adversarial relationship that goes back for almost half a century. I recall, way back in 1967, being beaten bloody by police outside theNOTW offices in London's Fleet Street while protesting the newspaper's part in the jailing of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger after the Redlands drug bust. And then there were the regular stamp-out-these-hippie-dope-fiends "exposés" that fueled the dangerous red-faced ire of all the saloon bar tweed blowhards who "only read the paper for the sports" and not the weekly catalogue of rape cases. And then, of course, the whole game was played all over again againstJohn Rotten and his ilk in thepunk era. Rupert Murdoch has closed down his disgusting organ and I hope its memory will yellow and decay. Unfortunately, I suspect theNOTW will soon be replaced by something equally loathsome likeThe Sunday Sun.[44]
The paper became notorious forchequebook journalism,[45] as it was often discovered attempting to buy stories, typically concerning private affairs and relationships, of people closely involved with figures of public interest such as politicians, celebrities and high-profile criminals. With this intention, the paper on occasion paid key witnesses in criminal trials such as the 1966Moors murders case,[46][47] and the 1999 trial ofGary Glitter on charges of assaulting an underage teenage fan.[48]
The paper began a controversial campaign toname and shame allegedpaedophiles in July 2000, following the abduction andmurder of Sarah Payne in West Sussex. During the trial of her killerRoy Whiting, 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,[49] which included several cases of mistaken identity, including one instance where apaediatrician had her house vandalised,[50] and another where a man was confronted because he had aneck brace similar to one a paedophile was wearing when pictured.[51][52] The campaign was labelled "grossly irresponsible" journalism by the then-chief constable ofGloucestershire, Tony Butler.[53]
From the nineties until the newspaper’s demise in 2011, 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, pleaded guilty to illegal interception of personal communication and was jailed for four months; the paper's editor,Andy Coulson, 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 theNews of the World and itsNews International parent. According to a former reporter at the paper, "Everyone knew. The office cat knew", about the illegal activities used to scoop stories.[54]
On 17 January 2011,The Guardian 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.[55] In April 2011, attorneys for the victims alleged that as many as 7,000 people had their phones hacked by theNews of the World;[56] it was further revealed that the paper's owner,Rupert Murdoch, had attempted to pressure Prime MinisterGordon Brown andLabour Party MPs to "back away" from investigating the scandal.[57] Three journalists on the newspaper were initially arrested:Ian Edmondson andNeville Thurlbeck on 5 April[58] andJames Weatherup on 14 April.[59] The newspaper "unreservedly" apologised for its phone hacking activities during April 2011.[60] On 4 July 2011, it was disclosed that potential evidence had been deleted in spring 2002 from the hacked voicemail account ofMilly Dowler, then missing, but later found to have been murdered.[61]
On 13 December 2006, the newspaper announced that it was offering a record-breaking reward of £250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible forthe murders of five prostitutes aroundIpswich, Suffolk. The reward went unclaimed;Steve Wright 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 tolife imprisonment.[citation needed]
In 2002,Mazher Mahmood, an undercover reporter working for theNews of the World, also known as the Fake Sheikh, allegedly exposed a plot to kidnapVictoria Beckham. Five men were arrested but the trial later collapsed when it emerged theNews of the World had paid its main witness Florim Gashi £10,000 to work with Mazher Mahmood. Florim Gashi later admitted working with Mahmood to set up the kidnap plot. This led to an investigation byScotland Yard on theNews of the World called Operation Canopus.[62][63][64]
In August 2010, Mahmood posed as the "Fake Sheikh" to expose a cricket bookie namedMazhar Majeed who claimed Pakistani cricketers had committedspot-fixing during Pakistan's 2010 tour of England. In November 2011,Salman Butt andMohammad Asif were found guilty by a London court on criminal charges relating to spot-fixing.Mohammad Amir and Majeed had entered guilty pleas on the same charges.[65]
In a September 2010 interview broadcast on 7 July 2011 on the BBC Radio 4 news programmeThe World at One, formerNews 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 actorDenholm Elliott. The articles described Jennifer Elliott's destitute situation and stated that she had worked as a prostitute. She took her own life in 2003.[citation needed] In 2011, the paper knowingly used private investigators to gain stories from corrupt police officers.[66]
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Renault, which spent £343,829 with the Sunday paper last year, says it would not be advertising with sister publications such as The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.
For 168 years, News of the World was as English as roast beef.
Priced at threepence, it was the cheapest paper on news stands.
Final front page of News of the World revealed.
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