Murdoch bid for Sky is still in the balance July 7, 2011 MURDOCH’S bid for BSkyB was hanging in the balance last night, despite his bombshell decision to close the flagship News of the World. A Sky director told City A.M. the two sides are “miles away from any decision on price” because the situation “is changing so quickly”. Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt has been forced to [...]
Scandal will be a Lehman Brothers moment for media July 7, 2011 IN many ways, the disgusting scandal that has so stunningly and abruptly destroyed Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World (NotW) could prove to be a mini-Lehman Brothers moment for the media industry. As the dominos tumble, there will be more, as yet unknown, corporate victims. Seismic, uncontrolled changes are now afoot, at a time when [...]
Sales a sign of changing times July 7, 2011 THE NEWS of the World sales stood at 6.5m in 1969, when Murdoch fought off Robert Maxwell’s Pergamon group to buy the title for a princely £34m. It has closed with sales of just 2.6m this year. And in a sign of the times for the traditional newspaper industry, the last two papers to change hands [...]
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NEWS OF THE WORLD: UNDER RUPERT MURDOCH July 7, 2011 2 January 1969 Rupert Murdoch at the auction to bid for the control of the News of the World newspaper group. Murdoch beat off a rival £34m bid from Robert Maxwell’s Pergamon Press, winning a controlling stake and becoming new managing director of his first Fleet Street newspaper at the age of just 38. November [...]
Gripping reading from its salacious start to brutal end July 7, 2011 THE News of the World’s brutal axing yesterday was a story the title itself would have been proud to source. From humble beginnings 168 years ago, it earned itself a racy reputation based on sex and scandal-filled stories. Launched as a penny broadsheet on 1 October 1863, it targeted the higher echelons of society but [...]
NotW rivals set for boost July 7, 2011 THE News of the World was arguably the jewel in the crown of Murdoch’s UK newspaper stable. With 2.6m weekly sales generating £135m gross revenue per year, the paper was second only to its sister daily, the Sun, in its success in the UK market. Its advertisers also contributed an estimated £35m per year, according [...]
Gone but not forgotten: tabloid paper lives on July 7, 2011 IT is fitting that Rupert Murdoch should end the News of the World era with such an audacious act. The story of how he bought the newspaper in January 1969 is similarly brazen, not just because he defeated Robert Maxwell in a closely fought bidding war, but because of all that followed. The News of [...]
Twitter plays role in paper’s sudden demise July 7, 2011 FORMER deputy prime minister John Prescott yesterday declared: “It’s Twitter Wot Won It!”, in reference to the famous Sun headline. Campaigners have used the micro blogging site to rally support against the Murdoch empire as the phone hacking scandal unfolded. Yesterday thousands of tweets a minute spread like wildfire the news of the closure of [...]
NEWS OF THE WORLD TO CLOSE July 7, 2011 James Murdoch announced the closure of the News of the World in a statement to employees yesterday (see above). In it he admits that he was wrong to approve out-of-court settlements to victims of phone-hacking and also that the paper made statements to the House of Commons select committee that could have been misleading.
ECB changes rules in a bid to save Lisbon July 7, 2011 The European Central Bank (ECB) threw its rulebook out the window yesterday in a bid to protect Portugal from spreading Eurozone contagion. In a question-and-answer session with journalists, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet abruptly announced that the Bank will suspend its normal criteria for acceptable collateral in order to keep the taps running for Portuguese banks. [...]
