News of the World demise sparks Sunday tabloid battle

[dipsydoodle]

So which newspaper is going to pick up most of those homeless News of the World readers this Sunday?

An unprecedented battle is under way, as rival publishers prepare to print extra copies, cut prices and launch TV advertising campaigns, to try to win over the millions of readers who have had their Sunday paper snatched from them. The potential windfall is huge. Rarely can so many customers in any market have been abandoned by the producers of what was - until its last week - such a popular and profitable product.

The News of the World sold 2.66 million copies a week in the first half of this year, making it the UK's biggest-selling newspaper. At £1 a copy, that generated over £2.5m a week or £150m a year. Even though some of that money went to the newsagents and wholesalers it is still a large sum for any publisher to turn away.

And copy sales don't tell the whole story. Like all newspapers, each copy was read by more than one person and the News of the World's total readership - as it reminded us on its farewell front page last week - was 7.5 million. So which newspaper is going to pick up most of those homeless News of the World readers this Sunday?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14163877

:shrug:

I'm out of the loop as far as all newspapers are concerned - stopped buying them back in the eighties.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. My guess is the Mail will do well

They've judged the online market very well - in the past couple of years they've overtaken The Guardian to be the most popular British newspaper website, by filling it with celebrity gossip. So far, I haven't heard the Mail mentioned much as hacking (I wouldn't put it past them, but maybe they were more careful about getting caught), so they may be able to position themselves as the 'clean' celebrity news source.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Both Associated Newspapers and Trinity

are thought to have been "at it" too. Even Richard Madeley, sitting in on the Chris Evans show this morning on Radio 2, mentioned that as have numerous others media sources over the past few days.

My sole knowledge of The Mail is that I buy it every Saturday for my mother who prefers their TV programs insert to other alternatives and in browsing though it, while she makes some coffee, that they have a very good "travel and holidays" section.

[fedsron2us]

3. God knows I am no lover of Rupert Murdoch

but this scandal extends far beyond just one rogue paper, rogue corporation or dare I say it even one rogue proprietor

Everyone needs to read the report 'What price privacy now?' published by the Information Commissioners Office in 2006

http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/current_topics/what_price_privacy_now.aspx

One quick glance at the table of results from Operation Motorman reveals that some of the other tabloids were more active in the market for illegal iformation than NOTW or the other NI publications.

The ICO recommended that the Data Protection Act needed to be granted extra teeth so that breaches could be punished by custodial sentences ofd upto 2 years. A number of papers including the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph as well as NI lobbied Gordon Brown to have those recommendations kicked into the long grass. Clearly what was happening at the NOTW was typical of a good portion of the press

http://basement-garden.co.uk/blog/2011/07/daily-mail-ico-private-investigators/

Of course the press are not alone in creating this monster. All the political parties were only too eager to play the man not the ball when it suited them, and may well also have been engaged in trading some of this illegal data when it helped damage their opponents. This process was part of a wider corruption of public life in the UK which involved far more than just the press. The shame is that the Labour party have been just as guilty in the past of fostering a culture of smears as the Tories

[LeftishBrit]

4. True enough - e.g. the Daily Mail, Express and Torygraph are not part of Rupert's empire

And this sort of press mogul viciousness has been going on for a long time (Waugh's 'Scoop' was published in 1938). And I definitely agree that there has been a culture of smears and not only in the press, and that it has involved all parties.

However, Rupert certainly had lots of fingers in lots of nasty pies, and I do also think that the repercussions of the scandal may help to reduce some of the viler aspects of the current press culture.

[T_i_B]

6. IMHO, The problem is this...

...even if Murdoch sells up and pisses off to whichever tax haven will have him who would run his titles instead? Would it be Richard Desmond buying The Sun or some Russian billionaire?

Newspapers may be a declining market but they still have a heck of a lot of influence really (too much if you ask me. Even if the Murdoch's goThe Times & The Sun may well appeal to some other right winger who wants a platform for his views without the inconvenience of seeking election.

[non sociopath skin]

5. I'll stick with the Observer.

Still get rather nostalgic for the Sunday Times which I also used to enjoy in its pre-Digger days.

The Skin

[dipsydoodle]

7. From last nights discussion on TV

chances are that many will simply stop buying a Sunday paper with the net losers being the print and distributive trades.