News of the World
This article is about the British tabloid. For the Queen album, see News of the World (album).The
News of the World is a
British tabloid newspaper published every Sunday. It is published by
News Group Newspapers of
News International, itself a subsidiary of
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation and can be considered to be the Sunday version of
The Sun. The newspaper tends to concentrate on lighter weight news stories such as celebrity gossip. Its fondness for
sex scandals has gained it the nicknames "Sex 'n' Scandal weekly", "News of the Screws" and "Screws of the World". In December, 2002 it sold 3.78 million copies per week. The current editor is
Andy Coulson, who replaced
Rebekah Wade in January, 2003. She in turn had replaced
Phil Hall in May 2000. The newspaper often includes one or two contentious issues amongst the celebrity scandal stories it is infamous for. These more serious stories are consistently dealt with in what has often been criticised as a populist, conservative and xenophobic manner.
The newspaper was first published on
October 1,
1843, in
London by
John Browne Bell. Priced at just three pence, even before the repeal of the
Stamp Act (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. Despite being dismissed as a "scandal sheet" it soon established itself as the most widely read Sunday paper. Initial sales were around 12,000 copies a week. This success encouraged other similar newspapers, of which the
Sunday People, the
Daily Mail, the
Daily Express and the
Daily Mirror are still being published.
Its slogan was, "All human life is there".
Murdoch purchase
The newspaper passed into the hands of Rupert Murdoch's
News Ltd. in 1969, snatching the paper from
Robert Maxwell's
Pergamon Press after an acrimonious year-long struggle. It was Murdoch's first "
Fleet Street" acquisition. 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. 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."The newspaper has often had to defend itself from
libel charges and complaints to the
Press Complaints Commission 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, and various cases involving journalist
Mahzer Mahmood. [
1] [
2]
The paper began a controversial campaign to name and shame alleged
paedophiles in
2000 following the abduction and murder of
Sarah Payne. The paper also campaigns for the introduction of '
Sarah's Law' to allow public access to the
Sex Offenders Register.
Of course the paper had missed the irony of starting the campaign in the same issue that they published a centre page spread of former Atomic Kitten star Kerry Katona posing topless in a series of pictures taken when she was aged 16.
* In
2005 England soccer captain
David Beckham 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." 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 received £100,000 in damages from the publishers of The
News of the World and its sister paper
The Sun over articles falsely reporting he had slapped his fiancée,
Coleen McLoughlin. Both had always denied the reports.
* In June
2006 England footballer
Ashley Cole received damages from the publishers of The News of the World over articles falsely alleging the footballer had used a mobile phone as a gay sex toy. 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 and attended a
swinger's club in Manchester. Sheridan won the case and was awarded £200,000 in damages. The newspaper intends to appeal against the juries decision.[
3]
The News of the World's royal correspondant
Clive Goodman and two associates were arrested on
August 8 2006 for allegedly tapping phones of members of the royal family, political figures and celebrities. The arrests were the result of a seven month investigation by
Scotland Yard. The News of the World's
London office was searched by police as a result of the investigation.
The investigation began as a result of a November 13 2005 article by Goodman reporting that
Prince William was going to borrow a portable editing suite from
ITV royal correspondant
Tom Bradby. When the Prince and Bradby met they tried to figure out how the details of their arrangement had leaked out, as only four people including them had known about the arrangement.
Prince William noted that another equally improbable leak had recently taken place regarding an appointment he had made with a knee surgeon. After some discussion, the two concluded that someone was breaking into mobile phone answering machine messages.[
4] The voice mails that were broken into belonged to aides, and not Prince William himself.[
5]
Their concerns were passed along to the police, whose investigation began as a localized incident simply involving members of
Clarence House. The investigation's list of possible victims has broadened to include ministers, an
MP, military chiefs, a leading media figure, top footballers and celebrities.[
6]
*
David Beckham and
Rebecca Loos (2004)
*
Mark Oaten and his relationship with a
rent boy (January 2006)
*
Prince Harry underage drinking and drugs (January 2002)
*
Stuart Kuttner (Managing editor)
*
Andy Coulson (Editor)
*
Keith Gladdis (Whitehall editor)
* Neville Thurlbeck (mainly responsible for the Beckham/ Loos story) [
7]
* Chris Ryan
*
Mazher Mahmood (aka 'the fake sheikh')
*
Ulrika Jonsson* Rav Singh
* Clive Goodman
* Jane Atkinson
* Neil Mcleod
* Amanda Evans
* Sara Nuwar
* Robert Kellaway
* Katie Hind
* Matthew Acton
*
Phil Taylor* Polly Graham
* David Harrison
* Ray Ryan
* Antony Kastrinakis
*
News Corporation*
News Limited*
News International*
Rupert Murdoch*
Junk food news*
Official Site*
How the 'Screws' screwed its rivals Tim Luckhurst,
The Independent, 19 February 2006
