News of the World facts for kids
 |
|
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | News Group Newspapers (News International) |
| Founded | 1 October 1843 |
| Political alignment | Conservative |
| Ceased publication | 10 July 2011 |
| Headquarters | Wapping, London |
| Circulation | 2,606,397 (April 2011) |
| Sister newspapers | The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times |
The News of the World was a weekly tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom that was published every Sunday. It was one of the most popular English language newspapers in the world when it stopped printing in 2011. It was first a broadsheet newspaper when it started in 1843. It was last owned by News International (a part of News Corporation) and was the sister newspaper of The Sun. From 2006, the newspaper was said to have hacked the phones of people in order to find news. The News of the World ended because of this on 7 July 2011. Many members of the News of the World were arrested by police for doing this.
A Sunday version of The Sun was started in the place of the News of the World on 26 February 2012. It was called The Sun on Sunday. Some workers from the News of the World worked for this new newspaper.
Contents
History
The newspaper was first published as The News of the World on 1 October 1843, by John Browne Bell in London. Priced at three pence (equal to £1 in 2021), it was the cheapest newspaper of its time and was aimed directly at the newly literate working classes.
Before long, the News of the World established itself as the most widely read Sunday paper, with initial sales of around 12,000 copies a week.
The title was sold by the Bell family in 1891 to Henry Lascelles Carr who owned the Welsh Western Mail. As editor, he installed his nephew Emsley Carr, who held the post for 50 years. The real engine of the paper's now quick commercial success, however, was George Riddell, who reorganised its national distribution using local agents.
By 1912, the circulation was two million and around three million by the early 1920s. Sales reached four million by 1939. This success encouraged other similar newspapers, of which The Sunday People, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror are still being published.
The paper's motto was "All human life is there". The paper's name was linked with sports events as early as 1903 when the golfing tournament The News of the World Match Play Championship began (now under British PGA auspices). The News of the World Darts Championship existed from 1927 on a regional basis and became a national tournament from 1947 to 1990. There was also a News of the World Championship in snooker from 1950 to 1959 which eclipsed the official professionals' competition for a number of years. In athletics, the Emsley Carr Mile race was started in 1953 in memory of the former editor, and is still run annually. The paper's Football Annual was a long-standing publication (sponsoring it until 2008), and a Household Guide and Almanac was also published at one time.
By 1950, the News of the World had become the biggest-selling newspaper in the world with a weekly sale of 8,441,000 and individual editions sold over 9 million copies.
As with other Sunday newspapers, the News of the World was published on Saturday whenever Christmas Day fell on Sunday.
The newspaper passed into the hands of Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd. in 1969.
During the four decades of Murdoch's ownership, the newspaper had to frequently defend itself against libel charges as well as complaints to the Press Council (later the Press Complaints Commission) on accusations of certain news-gathering techniques, such as entrapment, and contentious campaigns.
Starting in 1981, a magazine supplement (Sunday) was included with the paper and, in 1984, the newspaper changed from broadsheet to tabloid format. The paper was printed in Hertfordshire, Liverpool, Dinnington near Sheffield, Portsmouth, Glasgow and Dublin, with a separate edition produced in Belfast. It was also printed at a number of sites abroad including Madrid, Brussels, Cyprus and Orlando in Florida, USA.
In 2011 the then editor, Colin Myler, described it as "the greatest newspaper in the world" as it had won four awards at the British Press Awards.
End of publication
It was announced on 7 July 2011 that, after 168 years in print, the newspaper would print its final edition on 10 July 2011 following revelations of the ongoing phone hacking scandal, with the loss of 200 jobs. The paper announced that all profits from the final edition – 74 pence out of the £1 cover price – would go to "good causes", and advertising space would be given to charities; the remaining 26 pence for each copy went to retailers selling the paper and to wholesalers. Shutting the newspaper cost News Group Newspapers around £240m.
Awards
The British Press Awards:
- "Newspaper of the Year" (2005)
- "Scoop of the Year" (2000, 'Archer quits'; 2005, 'Beckham's secret affair'; 2011, 'Cricket corruption')
- "Front Page of the Year" (2004, 'Huntley in his cell')
- "Reporter of the Year" (Gary Jones, 1995, Mazher Mahmood, 1999, 2011)
See also
In Spanish: News of the World (periódico) para niños
