The demise of a popular British tabloid

The decision to shut down the British tabloid News of the World is bad news, very bad news indeed -- and not because it is a glorious creation of the British press (far from it), but rather because of the reasons behind the closure. The catalyst was a particularly ugly affair in which the newspaper hacked into the cell phone messages of thousands of victims, including families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. British Prime Minister David Cameron has talked about establishing a committee to investigate the tabloid's "unethical behavior." Yet Cameron is mistaken; the paper's behavior is not unethical -- it's outright criminal!

Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch didn't have much choice. He had to rid himself of the tabloid, which has been in existence for 168 years, since the Victorian era. The weekly turned into radioactive material for Murdoch, and he realized the popular brand now threatened to stain his entire empire. He decided to get rid of the tabloid, and fast. Maybe he thought that the story would die down with the newspaper's demise, thus ending the scandal. But this story is too big, bigger even than the paper itself. And that's a fact.

The story has three angles: criminal, ethical, and economic.

As for the criminal, there are rules when it comes to wiretapping. Perhaps the British tabloid felt it was above the law. Otherwise it is difficult to understand how the tabloid could order someone to hack into the cell phone of a missing 13-year-old girl, listen to her voice mail messages and even delete some of them, leading police to believe that she was still alive when, in fact, she was not. It's outrageous to think that a newspaper could eavesdrop on the family members of victims of the 2005 London terror attacks and even families of soldiers who died for their country.

As for the ethical issues, in March 2003, Rebekah Wade, then editor of The Sun newspaper appeared before the House of Commons select committee on culture and the media to discuss dubious tabloid practices. She admitted that the paper had in the past paid police for stories, but following a media storm over her remarks, she could not recall the details of when or how. In the meantime, she got married and changed her name to Rebekah Brooks, but she remained the same Rebekah who one year earlier served as editor of News of the World, during the time when the missing 13-year-old girl's phone was hacked. Brooks claims she didn't know, but her former employees have said that even if she didn't, she created an atmosphere conducive to such behavior. There are limits when it comes to how much should be paid for a scoop, even if it's the greatest story ever.

As for the economic angle, the British tabloid sold five million copies 20 years ago. In the 1950s, it sold about eight million copies, while today it sells a mere 2.6 million copies. If only all newspapers could boast such circulation.

Murdoch also owns The Sun, which is similar to News of the World both in spirit and content. After he shuts down the former, he can simply publish the latter for an extra day per week in the form of The Sun on Sunday, for example, and thus continue to publish on Sundays while cutting costs.

In the 1930s, a British newspaper dared to present Hitler and Mussolini in a positive light. That newspaper survived its mistake and today its name is The Daily Mail. Today we are living in a different era, and the crime is different as well. Then it was a matter of expressing a stance, while today we are dealing with a criminal matter. Ironically enough, News of the World was awarded a prize a year ago for exposing a multimillion pound price-fixing scandal in the game of cricket.

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