See, "News Corp. to Close Scandal-Hit Tabloid":
News Corp. said it will close its 168-year-old U.K. tabloid News of the World, a dramatic bid to cap a scandal centered on the paper's controversial reporting tactics.
The weekly paper, published on Sundays, is accused of improperly intercepting voice mails of everyday people, including a 13-year-old murder victim, as well as those of celebrities.
James Murdoch, News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer, told staff Thursday that News Corp. had decided to close the paper because the allegations—if true—were "inhuman" and had no place in the company.
He said the paper's reputation had been "sullied by behavior that was wrong."
The paper is one of Britain's sauciest and most storied tabloids, and was a key building block in the global media empire built by News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, who purchased it in 1969. It became the U.K.'s best-selling Sunday paper with a righteous, no-holds-barred approach to taking down the rich and famous, from politicians to soccer stars. That style both appealed to the U.K.'s working class and titillated sophisticates who bought it as a guilty pleasure.
But News of the World's populist foundation was cracked this week when allegations surfaced that the same dubious reporting tactics it deployed against celebrities and political leaders may also have been used against the kind of regular people who make up its readership.
More details at the link above, including the disclaimer that News Corp. is the parent company to Wall Street Journal. See also, "Murdoch savvy like a fox in shutting tabloid."
And here's more video from Telegraph UK:
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