The last edition of the News of the World (NoW) has been published, its front page declaring: “Thank you & goodbye.”
Editor Colin Myler, after leading staff from the building late on Saturday, said: “This is not where we want to be and not where we deserve to be.”
Publisher News International axed the 168-year-old tabloid in the wake of phone-hacking allegations last week.
In a full-page inside editorial, the paper offers an apology. “Quite simply, we lost our way,” it says.
Rupert Murdoch is due to arrive in the UK this weekend to take charge of handling the phone-hacking crisis.
During a short speech to more than 200 staff outside the paper’s offices in Wapping, east London, Myler held up the 8,674th and final edition of the Sunday newspaper, saying: “As a final tribute to seven-and-a-half million readers, this is for you – and for the staff, thank you.”
He added: “Now, in the best traditions of Fleet Street, we are going to the pub.”
The News of the World has doubled Sunday’s print run to five million, with money from the sales being donated to four charities.
‘Fell shamefully short’
In a full-page editorial on page three, the paper offers an apology for the hacking of phones.
“We praised high standards, we demanded high standards but, as we are now only too painfully aware, for a period of a few years up to 2006 some who worked for us, or in our name, fell shamefully short of those standards.
“Quite simply, we lost our way,” the paper admits.
“Phones were hacked, and for that this newspaper is truly sorry.
“There is no justification for this appalling wrongdoing. No justification for the pain caused to victims, nor for the deep stain it has left on a great history.
“Yet when this outrage has been atoned, we hope history will eventually judge us on all our years.”
In other developments:
The family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was allegedly hacked after her abduction in 2002, is to meet Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday to discuss the independent inquiries related to the phone-hacking scandal
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates has expressed “extreme regret” over his decision not to reopen the investigation two years ago after reviewing the initial police probe
Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown told the Observer that he had warned the government to get rid of ex-NoW editor Andy Coulson as its communications director. “I warned No 10 within days of the election that they would suffer terrible damage if they did not get rid of Coulson, when these things came out, as it was inevitable they would,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has also confirmed that Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger warned Clegg about potential difficulties in relation to Coulson’s role.
The prime minister has defended his decision to employ ex-NoW editor Andy Coulson
Coulson resigned as the prime minister’s spokesman in January saying that ongoing hacking claims were distracting him from his job. He denies knowledge of phone-hacking during his NoW editorship from 2003-07.
On Friday, the 43-year-old was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and alleged corruption. Former NoW royal editor Clive Goodman, 53 – who was jailed in 2007 for phone-hacking – was arrested on suspicion of corruption.
An unnamed 63-year-old man was arrested at an address in Surrey on suspicion of corruption.
All three men have been released on bail until October.
Judge appointment call
Murdoch said on Saturday that it had been “a collective decision” to close the paper, which he admitted had “let down its readers”.
And he told the Reuters news agency that News International’s chief executive and former NoW editor, Rebekah Brooks, has his “total” support.
In a letter to MPs released on Saturday, Brooks denied all knowledge of alleged hacking of the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler or any other case while she was editor.
The Labour Party is calling for an immediate start to the judicial phone-hacking inquiry so evidence will not be lost as the News of the World closes.
In a letter to the prime minister on Saturday, shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis asked for “immediate discussions so that by the end of the day we are in a position to agree the appointment of the judge” to head one of the independent inquiries into the scandal.
No 10 says it is acting “as rapidly as possible” and steps are being taken to appoint a judge to lead it.
News International has said a Guardian report that millions of e-mails may have been deleted is “rubbish”.
A News International spokeswoman said: “We adopted a documented e-mail retention policy in line with our US parent’s records management policy.
“We are co-operating actively with police and have not destroyed evidence.”
The tabloid is accused of hacking into phones of crime victims, celebrities and politicians. Police have identified 4,000 possible targets.
The government has announced two independent inquiries into the scandal, firstly a judge-led probe into the activities of the NoW and other papers, and the failure of the original police investigation from 2005 into phone-hacking.
The second inquiry will examine the ethics and culture of the press.
-With bbc.co.uk input
