Demise of News of the World distresses employees

LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 8, 2011) (REUTERS - News of the World staff react to news of the newspaper's demise, after its owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, shut down the best-selling Sunday newspaper to limit damage done by allegations that its journalists hacked the voicemail of thousands of people, from child murder victims to the families of Britain's war dead.

A relative of former News of the World employees, Lewis Cox said he was sad about media mogul Rupert Murdoch's decision to shut down the best-selling Sunday newspaper.

"Quite upset, yeah, it's been like a long, traditional thing really with the families, especially my side of the family. Most of my uncles worked in the print and used to work for the news of (the world) when it was in the previous street, before it moved to where it's currently located now. So, yeah, it's a bit distressing, but you can't blame the workers, you can only blame the people who really have caused this," Cox said.

Asked about his reaction to the developments, News of the World political editor David Wooding said: "Very said, very sad, it's going to be emotional for us all this weekend."

Andy Coulson, an ex-editor of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, is under police investigation on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and conspiring to corrupt.

Murdoch confidante and former editor, Rebekah Brooks, like Coulson, has denied knowing that journalists on the paper were hacking the voicemails of possibly thousands of people.

Unlike Coulson, the 43-year-old is still employed, running Murdoch's British newspaper arm News International.

As allegations multiply that News of the World journalists hacked the voicemail of thousands of people, from child murder victims to the families of Britain's war dead, the tabloid haemorrhaged advertising, alienated readers and pose a growing threat to Murdoch's bid for BSkyB broadcasting group.

Detectives are also now looking into payments, in the tens of thousands of pounds (dollars), by journalists to police officers, mostly for information.

Police have arrested several journalists in recent weeks after reopening inquiries in January into the hacking of cellphone voicemails.

Coulson resigned as the paper's editor in 2007 after one of his reporters and a private investigator were convicted of hacking into phones of members of the royal family, although Coulson insisted he knew nothing about the phone hacking.

Hired almost immediately by UK Prime Minister David Cameron to run his media efforts, Coulson became a key figure in Downing Street when the Conservatives won a general election last May, ending 13 years of rule by Labour.

The renewal of police inquiries in January, as News Corp acknowledged evidence that phone hacking was more than just the work of one rogue reporter, prompted Coulson to quit the prime minister's office, still protesting his innocence.

Analysts estimate -- though full accounts are not published -- that the newspaper made perhaps some 10 million pounds (16 million U.S. dollars) a year on sales of 2.7 million copies a week, compared to perhaps 100 times that which Murdoch could hope to earn from full control of the Sky pay-TV chain in Britain.