THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NEWS OF THE WORLD: UNDER RUPERT MURDOCH
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 1986
News International moved its titles from Fleet Street to Wapping, East London.
July 2001
Politician and author Lord Jeffrey Archer was jailed for four years for perjury after a court case sparked by the News of the World’s investigation into him paying off a prostitute.
May 2002
The newspaper exposed Have I Got News For You star Angus Deayton allegedly snorting cocaine with a prostitute. He was sacked from the show after further such stories later that year.
January 2002
The News of the World revealed that Prince Harry, who was 16 at the time, was sent to a rehab clinic after admitting he frequently smoked cannabis. He also confessed to underage drinking.
June 2003
Ex-BluePeter presenter and ITV This Morning host John Leslie was exposed as a cocaine user in a damning video that spelled the end of his TV career. He was filmed during a party at his home in Surrey.
June 2003
In an undercover investigation, a News of the World reporter was hired as the sole guard to Ian Huntley, who murdered ten-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
The newspaper’s infiltration into a high security prison resulted in a tough overhaul of Britain’s jails.
July 2011
News International chairman James Murdoch announces that the News of the World is to close as a result of the damage done by allegations that its journalists hacked into phones of bereaved relatives of war dead and victoms of the 7/7 London bombings among others. A tearful Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, reads his statement to a shocked newsroom. Murdoch defends Brooks and says she will stay in position.
After 168 years in print, the News of the World will publish its last ever edition this Sunday. Since its launch in 1843, the paper has specialised in titillating tales, campaigns and undercover stings. However, in the phone hacking case it found itself on the wrong side of one of the biggest scandals of all.