Will Sundays Ever Be The Same Again?

Cat Cambridge, Senior Account Executive, Clarion Communications

THANK YOU & GOODBYE – that was the final and poignant splash from the News of the World on its last ever edition earlier this month.

The end of an era?  Good riddance?  Wherever you stand on this celebrated and now infamous tabloid, there’s no doubt that events leading up to Sunday 10 July will be etched in the memory of journalists, media professionals and PRs for many years to come.

In case you’re in the dark about the News of the World’s history, you may be interested to know that it was born on Sunday 1 October 1843 – 168 years ago.  It was created to titillate the working masses, feeding them with tales of scandal and outrage – so it’s perhaps not too surprising that it later acquired the nickname ‘News of the Screws’, and furthermore that when its end finally came that it bowed out in disgrace.

Personally, I have a fondness for the News of the World; it does exactly what it says on the tin, and I’m not afraid to admit that its ‘earth-shattering exclusives’ have kept me entertained on many an otherwise dull Sunday afternoon. Growing up with parents who read The Daily Mail and The Times, The News of the World was not a natural choice for me. However, whilst studying Journalism at university it became one of my favourites, and I often sat in the same café on a Sunday sifting through the free papers they laid out – and I found myself enjoying it the most. Since my uni days, I have always respected the fact that the News of the World never bowed down to backlash, as it knew that its gossip pages and exposés were a part of its winning formula.    

I don’t blame anyone who has washed their hands of this now notorious newspaper, given its recent actions.  There have been some unforgiveable breaches of human rights and it’s only fair that it was held accountable for its crimes.  All I ask of you is to at least pay your respects to an old timer that has informed us through six monarchs and 168 years of history.

And let us not forget some of the incredibly talented journalists who lost their jobs when it went under – to them I say Thank You & Goodbye.