Murdoch launches new Sunday tabloid
February 26, 2012
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has launched a new tabloid in the UK, The Sun on Sunday, in a bid to reclaim the readers it lost after the scandal-hit News of the World shut down last summer.
In an editorial entitled "A new Sun rises today," the paper pledged to uphold standards of decency and trust and said its journalists would be ethical. "You will be able to trust our journalists to abide by the values of decency as they gather news," it said.
The editorial also insisted that the 10 Sun journalists arrested since November, charged with bribing police and public officials for information, were innocent.
The 168-year-old News of the World closed in July following revelations that the paper had routinely hacked into the mobile phones of celebrities and other prominent people, including a missing schoolgirl who was later found murdered.
Murdoch confident
The Australian-born Murdoch, founder and head of the US-based News Corp., was on hand to supervise the first edition as it rolled off the printing press. He arrived in Britain on February 16 to take charge of The Sun after the most recent arrests, and announced the surprise launch of the new tabloid a day later.
The 80-year-old media tycoon has expressed confidence in his new venture, heavily promoting the paper. Advertisers also seem to be on board, with Murdoch writing on Twitter Wednesday that the paper was "completely sold out."
However, in a report earlier this week media research firm Enders Analysis predicted The Sun on Sunday would not be as successful as its predecessor in the UK's competitive market.
"We estimate that even a triumphant launch would likely generate half to two-thirds of the income of the closed title," it said.
Sunday's initial print run was roughly 3 million copies, selling at the bargain price of 50 pence (about 58 euro cent/79 US cent). Media experts have predicted that the paper's circulation will settle at about 1.8 million, roughly equivalent to its competitors. The News of the World was selling around 2.7 million copies a week when it was shut down.
cmk/rc (AP, AFP)