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Quotes of the Week - News of the World, Steve Coogan, MySpace, Huffington Post

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

July 9, 2011 | 5 min read

The sudden closure of the 168-year old News of the World has dominated this week's headlines. As well as that we have Brilliant Media setting the record straight, MySpace founder's regrets and the Huffington Post's UK launch.

"Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper. This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World."

After a week of further damning phone-hacking revelations, James Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corporation, announces the shock closure of the News of the World.

"People have asked if it is right for me, as CEO of News International and as the Editor of the NOTW until Jan 03, to oversee..our efforts to assess allegations, address serious issues & prevent them from happening again. I’m determined that News Int does this."

News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks stands firm in the face of calls for her to resign.

"If Rebekah Brooks had a single shred of decency in her she would resign, if only because Milly Dowler's phone was hacked under her editorship."

Labour MP Chris Bryant demands that Brooks steps down.

"I am convinced that Rebekah Brooks' leadership of this company is the right thing. It's her leadership that has got to grips with the whole period in this company. Her leadership is crucial right now."

James Murdoch makes it clear he has no plans to sack Brooks.

"Let's not forget that the News of the World is, as far as I'm concerned - and always has been - misogynistic, xenophobic, single parent-hating, asylum seeker-hating... and it's gone to the wall, and I'm delighted!"

It is fair to say the comedian and phone-hacking victim Steve Coogan is glad to see the back of the News of the World, as you can tell from his impressive tirade on Newsnight.

"I think it's a sad day, [after] 168 years, the most famous paper in the world is going. I think it's a Sunday morning tradition in this country, the same way as eggs and bacon. I think that they have... broken a lot of major stories over the years and been very supportive of a lot of big campaigns, Help for Heroes, Sarah's Law, all of these things."

PR guru Max Clifford is one of few voices to lament the paper's passing.

“I think we have been very straight with people and the best thing we can do is stick two fingers up to the people that have been throwing the stones and say: Right, we’re still here, we’re still profitable and we’ve actually been winning quite a bit of business in the intervening period.”

Brilliant Media managing director Chris Broadbent hits back at critics who claimed his agency, the biggest independent media buying business in the UK, would close down after losing DFS and ASDA accounts.

"The board is very grateful to Alex for his enormous contribution to the company and we wish him well on his future."

Peter Bertram, chairman of media firm Ten Alps, reveals that chief executive Alex Connock is standing down after the business posted a pre-tax loss of £22.6m.

"My original vision for [MySpace] was that everything got better when it was social — so I tried to build all the super popular things used on the web (blogs, music, classifieds, events, photos) on top of MySpace’s social layer… But quickly I saw that it’s really hard to layer in social to features after the fact. At MySpace we had the luxury of having social first, and building the products on top of that layer. Then I choked and Facebook realized that vision.”

MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson, who sold the company last week, admits Facebook left it behind.

"We are arriving here in the midst of a rich and thriving media culture marked by great innovation. We look forward to adding HuffPost UK to the mix, and to our real-time ‘digital water cooler’ -- which embraces the best of the new (immediacy, transparency, interactivity) and the best of the old (fact-checking, accuracy, fairness, and an emphasis on storytelling) -- becoming the spark for many interesting conversations.”

Arianna Huffington certainly picked the right week to launch a UK edition of her eponymous US news website.

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