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Review: The final edition of the News of the World

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

July 10, 2011 | 6 min read

A look through the last ever edition of the News of the World with The Drum's news editor Stephen Lepitak.

The cover - front page and back -includes the words ‘Thank you & Goodbye’, while alongside two quotations; one by George Orwell that name checks the newspaper, and another by one of its readers, a 68-year-old, who claims to have read the paper all of her life.

Buying the newspaper this morning, as it literally arrived in the store I picked up the first copy, and was soon followed by another woman in her sixties who said the same thing as she purchased it as is said in the second quote - ‘I don’t know what my Sundays will be like without it’. The man serving her made a sarcastic comment that said that he was not one of its 7.5 million readers and that he was clearly apathetic towards its closure.

A lot of people who never bought this paper will do so this morning to see what the fuss is about and will probably be left a little in the dark still, as the final edition, inevitably, attempts to celebrate the history of the title. It includes across its inside cover the front of its first ever edition - allowing you to hold both its first and last front pages simultaneously.

Page three is dedicated to covering the history of the newspaper and to highlight what it set out to achieve and does not gloss over the phone hacking controversy while highlighting its triumphs.

“You’ve been our life. We’ve made you laugh, made you cry, made your jaw drop in amazement, informed you, enthralled you and enraged you.

“You have been our family, and for years we have been yours, visiting every weekend.

“Thank you for your support. We’ll miss you more than words express.

“Farewell.”

This edition bids a lot of farewells and contains several retrospectives as the newspaper attempts to overturn the public perception that it was full of unworthy stories about celebrities, and highlights crimes it helped cracked, corruption it has exposed and worthy campaigns it has battled. It also celebrates Page Three girls, awards for bravery and its ‘Fake Sheik’ exposés.

In fact it takes until pages 10 and 11 before it starts to turn to actual news, with the main story featuring he Royal Newlyweds William and Kate meeting up with David and Victoria Beckham. If the newspaper was working on another revelatory story, then clearly all that has happened this week has cut that short - especially the limitations that staff ended up working under following the announcement that they were to lose their jobs.

There is a News of the World investigation featured on page 19, looking at vice trafficking, which is unlikely to have made its front page, featuring not a celebrity in sight.

With its advertisers running to the hills through out the week, the newspaper has chosen to offer free space to good causes, many charities refused to accept however, and while there are adverts for the likes of Friendshipworks, myhiv.co.uk, Enham, St John Ambulance and Pennies for Life, that some of these adverts are repeated later on in the edition speaks volumes for the takeup of the newspapers offer.

The middle section carries a timeline of history of events during the history of the newspaper and also features across each page, front page news stories it has broken in that time, including the coronation of King George, the Sixth, the Confessions of Christine Keeler and the Profumo affair, England winning the 1966 World Cup, the first US invasion of Iraq, Jeffrey Archer paying off a prostitute, the charging of two 10-year old boys for killing Jamie Bulger, an exclusive interview with Divine Brown discussing her experience with Hugh Grant (he’s probably not reading), Hughie Green announcing that he was the father of Paula Yates, the death of Diana, Robin Cook leaving his wife to live with his secretary, its successful petition to establish Sarah’s Law, the Countess of Wessex speaking in detail about the Royal Family to the newspaper’s ‘Fake Sheik’, its claims to have foiled an acid parcel attack on Cherie Blair, the alleged extra martial affair by David Beckham, the racist comments made by Prince Harry about an army colleague, Wayne Rooney sleeping with a prostitute and the Tommy Sheridan sex story.

The newspaper has carried many exclusives that the general media has run with as main headlines - while not admitting to it, many within the widespread media must bemoan the loss of the News of the World as it has offered fodder for other journalists to report on for decades.

As a PR exercise, the staff who have worked on this edition will no doubt be proud of it as it looks back triumphantly on over a century-and-half of a news publication that will close with its reputation tarnished. However this story developed over phone hacking and other illegal practices, it won’t end with the News of the World, although who knows if it will see other titles disappear in the same manner.

There is now a huge void in the Sunday tabloid marketplace…I wonder who is going to fill it.

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