168-year-old News of the World came to an end

LONDON: Brought down by a scandal the 168 year old news paper “News of the World” closed on Saturday after publishing its last Sunday edition.

After police told to leave their desks, reporters leaving the newsroom of The News of the World for the final time on Saturday night, they have to leave their desks, including their notebooks, untouched. They were allowed to keep only their cellphones.

Scandal over the interception of voicemail messages that is rocking Britain’s media brought news paper to an end. The final edition included an apology to readers for the newspaper losing its way.

Many, like the Sunday edition of The Daily Mail, dug into speculation of a clubby bonhomie between politicians, police officers and proprietors that threatens to unravel. Indeed, Sunday’s edition of the Independent newspaper declared, it might be the beginning of “The War of the World”.

The story dominated the front pages of the other newspapers stacked around The News of the World.

As staff members filed out one-by-one, the newspaper’s editor Colin Myler reprised a tradition that goes back to the glory days of British journalism, a time before voicemail, when storied publications like ‘The News of the World’ were based around Fleet Street in the City of London and reported on Britain’s sprawling empire. He stood at a desk and struck it with a ruler as he looked each staff member in the eye, an emphatic farewell known as “banging out”.

Several staff members said that they expected the police would soon turn their beloved newspaper into a crime scene as investigations into the hacking scandal gained momentum.