By Ben Aulakh
Disgraced Tabloid the News of the World has been axed by Rupert Murdoch’s News International, in the light of the recent phone hacking scandal.
The announcement was made on Thursday by the company’s chairman James Murdoch amid growing public anger, and advertisers deserting the title in their droves.
The decision comes after last week’s revelations that the private investigators hired by publication, hacked into and deleted voicemail messages from the mobile phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler.
The messages had consisted of pleas from family and friends for the teenager to get in touch, the contents of the voicemails were subsequently used in stories published by the paper.
The deletion of the messages on the girls mobile had also led the family to falsely believe that Miss Dowler was still alive.
Police have said that the deletion of the voicemails could have destroyed evidence which may have been vital to the investigation into the girl’s disappearance.
Former NoW Editor Rebekah Brooks could face criminal charges over the scandal, which happened during her tenure at the red-top in 2002.
The decision to scrap the beleaguered title comes as some of its biggest advertisers including Easyjet, Npower, Sainsbury’s, Dixons, 02, Vauxhall and Ford, had pulled out of continuing to place adverts in the paper.
The scandal has also exposed David Cameron’s former communications secretary, Andy Coulson, as being involved in paying members of the police force bribes for information on stories.
It is not yet clear if the 168 publication will be replaced, however the domain name thesunonsunday.co.uk has already been purchased, though it is currently not known who by.
Photograph from www.guardian.co.uk
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