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After 168 years in print, The News of the World is set to publish its final edition on Sunday. While no doubt many devoted readers will mourn its passing, the shock of James Murdoch’s decision to close down the paper for good has by no means diminished the enormity of the scandal which has led to this eventuality. 

When Andy Coulson stepped down as editor over allegations of phone hacking in 2007, his resignation seemed to be taken as a carte blanche guarantee that all such actions had come to an end. Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire served jail sentences, and order appeared to have been restored as the Mirror’s former editor, Colin Myler, took Coulson’s place. Granted, Coulson himself was subsequently hounded by the press in relation to the affair, but this was more due to David Cameron’s decision to employ him as communications director for the new administration. While no evidence had been brought against Coulson personally in the matter, the public seemed to think him an unwise choice for the role, which he abruptly resigned early this year.

It has therefore been with disbelief and a degree of incredulity that the British public has watched the unfolding of this most recent saga. Like one of the ‘shock factor’ headlines of which The News of the World is so fond, it’s caused many of us to do a double-take – is it really possible that so much corruption has been going undetected until this week? The heads of various interested parties have been doing a double-take themselves, desperate to acknowledge or apportion blame and assure us of their outrage and subsequent good intentions. I think we can all be forgiven for taking these with a pinch of salt, however genuine some (or even all) of them may be. When it comes to the press, we have learned to be wary.

The donation of the final edition’s entire circulation revenue to ‘good causes’, for example, has drawn far less sympathy than James Murdoch perhaps would have hoped. Some are saying that it merely proves the Murdoch empire can function perfectly well without the paper’s takings, while the Prime Minister was heard to say that he wouldn’t be surprised if it were replaced with a Sunday edition of The Sun. Of course, there are no available facts at present to confirm this, and it should be noted that in another fit of generosity, the ‘paywall’ on the paper’s website has been taken down, making its content free to the public, subscribers and non-subscribers alike. Having never read The News of the World in any kind of voluntary capacity, I was pleased to see I could now have gratis access to information on Prince Harry’s sex life, Apprentice losers finding love, and all the puns you could fit onto one web page. Apart from a grave-looking James Murdoch staring out from a box on the home page, you wouldn’t know anything bad had happened.

News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks seems to have vastly understated the situation when she said that the company was having ‘a very bad moment’ – News Corp’s market value has dropped by about £1.2 billion since the scandal broke, and the poor guys and girls at BSkyB must be wringing their hands as their share price plummets to a similar tune. Interestingly, the Brooks quote has come from a ‘secret recording’ of the meeting amongst NotW staff, obtained by Sky. Either Sky are really not learning from this, or they figure that their questionable sourcing techniques will be the speck to NotW’s plank. Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ms. Brooks becomes public enemy number one within the newspaper’s community, as the majority of them, unlike her, will inevitably be left without a job come next week.

Back to politics, and while the PM has doggedly stood by his decision to employ Andy Coulson, he has by no means trodden gently when it comes to condemning the breaches of privacy which have occurred and those who have perpetrated them. Nor is he convinced of News International’s good intentions when it comes to the closure of the NotW – he was quoted as saying that it was a purely commercial decision. “It's nothing to do with contrition, it's absolutely self interest,” said Cameron, in a press conference on Friday.

Mr. Cameron also stated that, had he been her boss, he would have accepted Rebekah Brooks’ resignation offer. Reports have been circulating that it was offered, but this has yet to be confirmed – it looks as though the former Sun editor will be staying. However, Cameron does seem to have over-reached himself somewhat in his zeal for justice. In announcing that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) had ‘failed’ in its role, he also declared that it would be subsequently shut down. As one of the Commissioners rather gleefully pointed out on Radio Four yesterday afternoon, it can’t be. The independent body would only shut if it went into some form of administration, and the Commission replied on its website that it refused to be a ‘convenient scalp’ for the government’s inquiries.

It seems ironic that a paper known for its exposure of scandal has become the centre of one of the largest media furores in years. Some of us may turn up our noses at the ‘red-tops’, preferring headlines that don’t periodically scream ‘Nazi Orgy’ or similar, but there can be no denying that the paper has had a significant influence on a vast section of the British public, and in some cases on noteworthy legal developments. After the murder of the schoolgirl Sarah Payne, The News of the World ran a huge campaign for what has become known as ‘Sarah’s Law’, which allows concerned parents to ask police for background checks on any adult who has unsupervised contact with their children.

Now the crime-fighting ethic upheld by James Murdoch in his statement on Thursday, looks to have turned on the paper. The exposure of wrongdoing doesn’t bring so much kudos, it seems, when it’s in your own backyard. It remains to be seen whether the excavation of that backyard will yield sufficient evidence to bring justice to a very messy and ignoble situation.