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@GordonJThomson

News of the World bids readers goodbye

The newspaper has printed its final edition after 168 years in circulation amid a phone-hacking scandal that has caused widespread outrage.

THE NEWS OF the World newspaper has printed its final edition today, bearing the headline “Thank You & Goodbye”.

The newspaper has folded as revelations about phone hacking by employees at the newspaper gained momentum last week. News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch and former editor Rebekah Brooks have both insisted they knew nothing about the incidents, which are alleged to include hacking into the phones of murder victims and their families.

Allegations that the newspaper paid police officers for information have also surfaced.

Brooks, who is now chief executive of News International, has resisted calls for her resignation and Murdoch has insisted that she has his full support.

Meanwhile, recent press advisor to the British Prime Minister and former editor of the NOTW, Andy Coulson, has been released by police after being arrested “on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications [...] and on suspicion of corruption allegations”.

Photo by the UK consumer news editor at NotW @DanJonesUK of the “amazing News of the World team on our last day in the office”.

Some 22 full-time and 10 part-time jobs will be lost with the closure of the newspaper’s Irish version.

The final version of the newspaper (non-ironically) carried a quotation by George Orwell on its back page, which reads:

It is Sunday afternoon, preferably before the war. The wife is already asleep in the armchair, and the children have been sent out for a nice long walk. You put your feet up on the sofa, settle your spectacles on your nose, and open the News of the World.

Murdoch flew into London yesterday to deal personally with crisis, which threatens to engulf his entire media empire.

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22 Comments
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    Mute Alan Murphy™
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    Jul 10th 2011, 10:31 AM

    And people will just go out and buy the sun tomorrow. Nothing changes

    92
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    Mute Alan Mulvey
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    Jul 10th 2011, 10:07 AM

    good at sport the rest was a rag

    60
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    Mute Seán Ó Briain
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    Jul 10th 2011, 11:28 AM

    Good riddance.

    44
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    Mute chrissy
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    Jul 10th 2011, 10:36 AM

    I do not, for one second, believe that the other red tops have not been doing the same thing. The NOTW should have been sold for £1 to a somebody or an organisation with impeccable credentials. The job losses are unforgivable, and a calculated contrivance to reduce the financial impact of this crisis on the wider Murdoch empire. Not to mention of course the effect on the regulators decision on the Sky takeover. What ever you think of the NOTW and its competitors, its popularity is evidence that it fulfills a substantial demand in the marketplace. Not everybody wants to spend Sunday morning reading detailed economic forecasts, in-depth analysis of government social policy, and the like. The red top papers are a good laugh, and everybody knows not to take them too seriously. I say come on Sunday Sun !!!!!!!!

    36
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    Mute Tom Molloy
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    Jul 10th 2011, 8:15 PM

    I dare say the people impacted by phone hacking take what the tabloids print very seriously indeed. These rags profit from people’s misery and pain and the people who pay them to do it – their readers – aren’t much better in my book.

    12
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    Mute Gerry Hannan
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    Jul 10th 2011, 10:17 AM

    Rats jumping off a sinking ship.

    28
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    Mute Roxy Blue
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    Jul 10th 2011, 10:31 AM

    They were pushed, bit hard to stay working at a company that no longer exists

    66
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    Mute Seán Cafferkey
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    Jul 10th 2011, 12:52 PM

    Goodbye and good riddance. Never read it so Im delighted it’s gone. Only ones I feel sorry for is the support staff who lost their jobs. They had nothing to do with the phone hacking

    23
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    Mute Eoghan Ryan
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    Jul 10th 2011, 12:58 PM

    One red topped cesspit down, lots more still left standing pushing a semi-literate hatemongering anti-intellectual agenda.

    Here’s hoping the future brings many more such revelations of the blindingly obvious.

    23
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    Mute John Mack
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    Jul 10th 2011, 12:51 PM

    so how long before the rest of the story breaks, the fact that they thought it better to close shop before bigger news comes out.

    18
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    Mute John McGuirk
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    Jul 10th 2011, 2:22 PM

    It’s a heck of a thing, watching holier-than-thou numpties celebrate depriving 4million people of their preferred sunday reading material.

    15
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    Mute Evert Bopp
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    Jul 10th 2011, 2:26 PM

    Mob rule at it’s best John.

    9
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    Mute Eoghan Ryan
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    Jul 10th 2011, 3:22 PM

    Draw some boobs on an old copy of Ann & Barry, it would be about the same level.

    17
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    Mute Daragh McDowell
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    Jul 10th 2011, 8:01 PM

    Indeed. Its far more preferable that a criminal enterprise involved in corrupting the most basic institutions of the state by bribing the police and thuggishly intimidating elected representatives into ignoring their crimes be continue acting with impunity, lest we miss out on such crucial and groundbreaking scoops like the fact that professional sports players are often not faitful to their wives.

    13
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    Mute Tim Potter
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    Jul 10th 2011, 3:19 PM

    Good riddance to bad rubbish. The News of the World a powerful investigative tradition that somehow failed to find their own internal corruption.

    13
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    Mute Michelle Ryan
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    Jul 10th 2011, 2:21 PM

    Feel sorry for some if these workers, however I’d be confident Rebekah Brooks is walking off with a golden handshake despite being incompetent enough not to know what was going on under her management, or being part of it. Either way she deserved to be sacked.

    10
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    Mute Biggins31
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    Jul 10th 2011, 3:58 PM

    Its hard to reconcile the two positions adopted by Rebekah Brooks.
    On the one hand she denies all knowledge what was going on – yet on the other hand she told the staff at NOTW that there is ‘still more to come’.

    Something don’t seem right!

    6
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    Mute Dvonne
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    Jul 10th 2011, 8:02 PM

    If you don’t like it don’t buy it. Simple as.

    3
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    Mute Unitedpeople Ireland
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    Jul 11th 2011, 1:13 AM

    Hellloooo – Its gone, so there will be no buying it! Duh!

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    Mute Derek Ibrahim Mc Cabe
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    Jul 10th 2011, 11:44 PM

    news of the world…what comes to mind oh yea pure shit.

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    Mute Mike Dowling
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    Jul 11th 2011, 12:49 AM

    My cat litter tray will miss it most …..

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    Mute fitszpatrick
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    Jul 13th 2011, 12:37 AM

    So you’re the bastard with the red arsed cat who shites on my lawn

    1
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