Well da
No way News Corp would give up the market share of NoW without a plan B. Even listening to their spokes persons they talk about this being an ongoing move, to consolidate brands and reduce costs.
And would they lie to use?
News International bought the sunonsunday.co.uk and thesunonsunday.co.uk domain names late last week, after they had originally been grabbed by unknown individuals as the phone-hacking scandal engulfed the News of the World Sunday tabloid. The final edition of that rag was published yesterday. But it's understood that News …
Friend of mine had two adopted beautiful kids, as his wife couldn't conceive.
He'd moved from Norfolk to Warwick.
I asked him "You brought your kids with you?" (meaning did you adopt them in Warwick, or adopt them in Norfolk?)
He went apoplectic at me, because he thought I said "bought".
Took awhile to straighten that out!
A festering pile of scabby crud smells as bad by whatever tag line they give it. I guess someone has to titillate the chavs, and Rupie considers that to be his territory.
NotW closure was just a gesture, Im sure they all knew what was going on, as much as I'm sure the election favours are now being called in by Rupie.
Ive said it before... Hypocrites
It's reassuring to find out that the Windscale Effect is still operational.
Have a devastaingly bad PR problem? Easy peasy, just change the name of the offending person/institute/liability. Within a few short weeks the entire british public will have forgotten all about the "old problems" and will embrace and throw money at exactly the same venture - just so long as it has a different name.
That would involve getting into a very serious and unwinnable game of whack-a-mole.
For example: If anyone is interested in running a parody site, I see that "shiteonsunday.<TLD>" would appear to be available for every value of TLD. This has the dual advantages of both being immune to any NI domain snatch shenanigans and also being a name that more accurately describes the content under discussion.
a) News International is responsible for registering or at least owning sunonsunday.co.uk
b) Closing NoTW is a cynical move that doesn't hurt News International at all
c) It's got no intention of changing its business model (same people in charge, same journos)
d) It's not a Fit and Proper Owner for Sky
It's even more cynical than the straightforward damage limitation exercise that most people think the NotW shut down is - the plan to turn The Sun into a seven day operation has been openly acknowledged by NI long before the NotW scandal. Getting rid of the NotW in the current climate gives NI an opportunity to cut costs sooner, by removing the duplicated roles that a simple merger would have resulted in without going through lengthy staff negotiations.
b) Closing NoTW is a cynical move that doesn't hurt News International at all
It actually benefits NI. NotW was an expensive operation (all those fake sheikhs, phone taps and bin rummaging doesn't come cheap) with a separate newsroom. Closing that down and producing a 7 day Sun filled with long-lens shots of various microslebs and reality TV articles from the Sun's existing newsroom will save them several tens of millions a year.
The markets will love it, and Rebekah Brooks will get a bit smoochy kiss from Uncle Rupert.
Last week, NI were being frowned at for wanting BskyB. The main argument against being that NI own 4 newspapers including the best selling tabloid in Britain (NOTW).
This week - oh look, that problem has gone away, no staff negotiations or expensive compensation, no going through government redundancy notifications for large groups of employees, another barrier removed to BSkyB, still going to sell sunday papers - less employees, lower costs and a clear path to BSkyB.
I do hope the gubbermint see through this and block them.
They can't be serious about the "SunonSunday" bollocks - the domain land grab is just full of holes.
www.sunonsunday.org.uk - currently a protest site against the very notion of a NOTW flip flop to SunonSunday which was registered after the sunonsunday.co.uk etc.
So shoddy work or unlikely to happen?
I'm not sure that he will be bothered about the circulation numbers (certainly for the next few years). He has shown that he is quite willing to let newspapers lose money (The Times hasn't made a profit in years).
What he is after is political control; whether that is by "persuading" the authority figures, or influencing voters. W R Hearst did the same back at the beginning of the 20th century and Orson Welles 'Citizen Kane' was an interesting study of just how it works. Similar methods were used by Goebbels and Stalin.
But I strongly suspect he's pissed on his chips as far as that goes.
Too many enemies, causing too much embarassment to those who arent his enemies... yet.
he and that redhead fuckwit will probably still think they are immune right up until the judges gavel drops as he intones 4 years or some such.
Well i can but dream.
well IMHO (lol) interfereing in the investigation to Millie Dowlers disappearance hampered police investigations. The animal responsible for Millie's death went on to commit 2 further murders. Who is to say that the plods trying to work out WTF was going on with her voicemail wouldnt have been the guys to stumble across the vital clue leading to the early capture of said animal. which in my book makes ruperts carrot topped friend an accessory.
Im sure not the only lives on her consience, well whatever it is she has where a normal human beings consience is.
hagins to good for em!
(Oh noes!!!1 Im infected with newsofthescrewsitis)
There could be a better way.
Both the aussies and the 'merkins have laws against bribing foreign officials. I don't know about how it's done down under but apparently the yanks take it quite seriously and have concluded that nothing focuses a CEOs mind better than the prospect of jail time. As a consequence they are quite willing to, and have a history of, pursuing the top individuals personally - rather than just slapping a fine on the company.
In this case (so I've read, tho' can't recall where) News Corp. is an american company and NI is a subsidiary.Therefore they are both subject to this law. It won't wash on the phone hacking aspect, but could do on the police backhanders issue. Normally I'm against the british government's policy of outsourcintg our law enforcement, but in this case I'm prepared to make an exception. Hell, I'd even be happy to bung the prosection a fiver to help with their case, so long as that isn't interpreted as me trying to bribe a foreign official.
Just why are the politicians normally so in lurve with Murdoch suddenly becoming all vitriolic and demanding that with great vengeance and furious anger that News International be referred to the Competition Commission. Could it be that because with the lessening of Market share caused by the demise of NotW the competition commission will have no choice but to report that News International taking full control of BSkyB does not represent a monopoly of the media organisations in the UK and as such should be allowed to go ahead.
But what of the "fit and proper" test. Well that test is conducted by OfCom who are only being asked to comment but not to report. This couldn't be playing out any more predictably if it were an episode of Yes Minister.
All politicians get to be outraged, all government agencies get to say the right thing officially without any of it mattering a jot, and Rupert Murdoch gets what he wanted all along.
If he is really lucky BSkyBs share price will plummet so far that he can even lower his offer to buy from 700p per share to 600p per share and offset the cost of losing News of the World. Then reclaim that share by starting the Sunday version of the Sun.
You have to hand it to Murdoch, he knows how to play the game.
He even managed to get everyone reporting his arrival like the second coming in the press last night giving the public impression that he was out of the country and is therefore as clean as a whistle. I mean, how could he have known what was going on...he wasn't even there.
Unless there are some people in government who see this as a heaven-sent opportunity to put the boot into Murdoch:
1. BSkyB bid gets referred to the Competition Commission.
2. Competition Commission says OK after some foot dragging. Meanwhile, the police investigation proceeds apace.
3. Ofcom gives the OK. Police investigation continues.
4. Takeover completes. So does the police investigation. The Dirty Digger is now Charles Foster Kane II until...
5. ...Ofcom decides CFK II is not a fit and proper person....
6. ... and withdraws BSkyB's licence.
Now that would be a real bummer, wouldn't it Rupe?
And the faceless hypocrites all around the country who were shocked and appalled at the phone hacking scandal will continue to buy the published crap 'cause it's what they want to read.
So they listened in to some recorded phone messages, so what... Are the ignorants that naive to think it hasn't been happening for years, is still now and will continue so - how do they think most of the trash they lap up every day gets out?
One action is someone making their private information public, the other is a violation under several parts of legislation from the computer misuse act to the RIPA.
The irony is that if we could get case law where RIPA is used to prosecute a private company, (even though the CPS it didn't cover private companies when the company involved was BT) then maybe we can finally get some justice for the Phorm intercepts.
It's a shame the News of the World has been effectively bullied into closing by shrill crowd of ill wishers. Sure there are genuine issues concerning a bunch of phone related stuff, but the so-called "public outcry" is greatly exagerated, seemingly consisting of kids on Tweeter and Facebook stirring up trouble. Yet notice noone ever blames the internet nowadays. Oh wait the News of the World would have blamed the internet....but oh they've been sacrificed at the alter of public opinion....whooops that was an own goal wasn't it?
The blame News of the World game is now being milked by politicians who discracefully just fall over themselves to do the publics bidding. I am sure all of this will blow over soon enough and I look forward to the Sun on Sunday and hope the new broadsheet will remain faithful to it's older form.
> has been effectively bullied into closing by shrill crowd of ill wishers.
Not quite.
Last year BSlyB made a profit of around £1Bn
Last year News International made a profit of about £20 Mil. - That's all thepapers in the group not just the NoTW
When it comes down to the bottom line, newspapers are irrelevant to Murdoch, it is likely he would sacrifice ALL OF THEM to get a shot at BSkyB.
In fact the only reason anyone in Britian would own a newspaper is for the vanity and political clout it bestows. You certainly wouldn't do it for the money. I can see that if this whole sorry affair results in the press (free or not) being cut off at the wotsits, then the attraction of being a newspaper baron will evaporate as well. Once that happens the value of newspapers will drop faster than Rebekah Thingy's popularity and they will just close - no matter how high their circulation.
'Corse once newspapers become obsolete, the value of a TV news channel sky-rockets (pun intended) for those who want power and influence but none of the responsibility. And TV News openings are much scarcer that printing presses.
So if a guy goes into a bank, tries to rob it, makes a balls of it and gets caught, it's everybody else's fault ? Crap analogy, I know, but really ?
Get real chum, they are alleged to have bugged, blagged and bribed across all of their titles according to breaking news, and the police, who come out of this as badly smeared by some individual officers alleged actions if not worse, are in the position that cases against officers and NI staff could end up compromised by NI wilfully leaking details of the case. They're cycnical and still honestly believe they can get away with all this.