Has Murdoch, with trademark bravura, leapt over the heads of his tormentors?
Raymond Snoddy: It has been a remarkable few days, in which three important instutitions in British society – the press, the police and the Prime Minister – have all been judged and found wanting…
Even one day after Rupert Murdoch’s audacious, pragmatic, cynical decision to close the newspaper that was his first calling card in the UK, it is difficult to believe that it has actually happened.
Is there any example in the annals of the media of a paper selling 2.6 million copies a week with revenues of £160 million a year and profits of £15 million being voluntarily liquidated?
Although James Murdoch, chairman of News International, talked yesterday of disgraceful and at times “inhuman” journalism this was at heart a business decision – a damage-limitation exercise par excellence.
The end of a 168-year old British institution came because of the wave of advertisers heading for the exit, the hit to the News Corporation share price and, perhaps above all, the sentiment running increasingly against a Murdoch takeover of BSkyB.
Above all Sky and its subscription revenues had to be protected from collateral damage a case of old media new media.
By any standards it has been a remarkable few days in which three important instutitions in British society – the press, the police and the Prime Minister – have all been judged and found wanting.
With a judge-led inquiry into the hacking and bribing of police with the power to take evidence on oath, we can look forward to years of embarrassing revelations which will make MP’s duck houses and moats on expenses look like very small beer.
Few people will come out of this well, whether the reputation of the press, senior policemen taking money for confidential information or even David Cameron himself. The hiring of Andy Coulson will raise questions about his judgement for the rest of his Prime Ministership.
It is impossible to predict where the second inquiry into the ethics of the press will lead. It could produce an unstoppable demand for legislation on matters such as privacy which would not expand freedom of expression in this country.
Prime Minister Cameron read the obituary of the Press Complaints Commission today when he described the PCC as a “failed” organisation.
The Commission has actually performed better than most people think in getting rapid redress for many ordinary people over the years. It has now been undone by being too credulous about the lies it was fed over the News of the World.
Alas we are now seeing the end of self-regulation of the press. The Prime Minister made it clear he wants a completely independent body.
Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International, is a dead woman walking whether her resignation is now accepted or not.
When the Prime Minister says at a press conference that he would have accepted her resignation in such circumstances the game is surely up even though Rupert Murdoch has a history of being loyal to his closest associates.
It does not really matter any more what she did or did not know – though that story may not be over, she has lost credibility both inside News International and outside.
Her famed political access will be no more. You can hear the doors already slamming in her face.
The whole saga has been a monument to mismanagement by News International. From the single rogue reporter theory to yesterday’s arguably over-the-top climax, NI has been on the back-foot – always offering too little too late.
What will happen now and has Murdoch, with trademark bravura, leapt over the heads of his tormentors?
He might just have pulled off the impossible yet again. It is inconceivable that Murdoch will wave goodbye to 2.6 million readers and revenues of £160 million. You can bet your boots that executives are already working round the clock turning The Sun into a seven-day operation – or a more separate Sun on Sunday.
All evidence from the past however is that if two newspapers merge, or there is a dramatic re-launch or re-branding the results are rarely good and that circulation melts away. Advertisers will not exactly rush to support a new Murdoch title and all NI’s publishing rivals will be trying to get a slice of the action.
Yet profits could increase dramatically at NI, as Murdoch takes the unexpected opportunity to get rid of a large number of the current staff of the News of the World – the vast majority entirely guiltless of the crimes committed by their predecessors.
Will he be able to pull off the big one – BSkyB?
Logically, there is no connection between events at the News of the World, however heinous, and the future of BSkyB. It has been cleared on competition grounds by Brussels and the concessions offered up on Sky News have been accepted by both Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading.
But mood and sentiment can run powerfully away from rational decisions and the anti-Murdoch crowd will make the most of the opportunity.
Culture Secretary Hunt must now be regretting that he didn’t choose the most simple option of all and send the matter to the Competition Commission for a full and independent investigation.
Now his staff will have to plough through more than 100,000 submissions and we will be lucky if there is a final decision this side of Christmas.
By then Murdoch will be spending millions promoting his new titles and if there are a stream of arrests and trials they will be of former News of the World executives long since paid off.
Who could have imagined where one hack thinking it would be a good idea to hire a private detective to hack into a mobile phone would lead?
And the story that first caused the scandal to begin unravelling – the state of a Prince’s knee after a minor accident wasn’t actually worth very much.
Such apparently trivial breaches of basic ethics can have such serious consequences.
Headline of the day?
The Times wins the prize with: “Hacked To Death”, although City AM’s “End of The World” is a worthy runner-up.