Hacked off, but for how long?

In the story of the News of the World's alleged phone-hacking, there has been a lone devil on the shoulder this week, mumbling into one ear while the mob of angels yelled in the other. Paul McMullan, a former features editor at the newspaper, and one of the early whistleblowers (he's now a pub landlord), still carries a camera in his car just in case he runs into anyone famous. We know this because he recently ran into Hugh Grant – a victim of phone hacking – when the actor's car had broken down. He snapped first, then offered a lift.

Grant later returned to McMullan’s pub, secretly recorded the conversation (“the bugger bugged, as it were,” he explained), published the results and since then the two have formed a most unlikely buddy-buddy element to an otherwise grim tale.

McMullan seems to have been plucked from tabloid central casting: bad skin, an ill-fitting suit, a cockney accent and bad posture, as if his gait has been remoulded by hours hunched on doorsteps in winter. His approach to all interviews has been shrugged honesty, unfiltered by any apparent need to say what he thinks people want to hear.

The temptation now is to print a full transcript of his Newsnightcontribution during the week, but here are a couple of the highlights: "I've always been really proud to have been a News of the Worldreporter, you know, the biggest circulating English-language newspaper in the world. But suddenly I felt a bit ashamed because of what [Milly Dowler's] parents have gone through. But, in reality, I've been thinking about it, taking a step back, and it's not such a big deal. I mean, I was talking to someone from Kenya earlier today who said well, you know, the journalist might have helped . . ."

And this on what he would have done if a private investigator had given him information on Dowler. “Do I put my fingers in my ears and say ‘please don’t tell me’? No, you don’t, you listen. And you think ‘that’s an interesting lead’. And, but, no, I shouldn’t be trying to defend the indefensible because it’s not going to be a very popular position, but . . .”

McMullan, though, has a crucial role here, because he represents something that everyone already knows, which is that everyone knew the end result, some knew how it was being produced, but few cared to think about that, and many millions bought into it.

The closure of the News of the Worldand a UK government inquiry into the press culture are seismic events, but will they truly alter the culture? Perhaps the most recent equivalent to this current outcry was that which followed the death of Diana, princess of Wales, in 1997. The circumstances and trajectory of that story were clearly different, but the initial response was similar. There were calls for a change in the paparazzi and media cultures; for action on privacy; a belief that it marked a watershed for both the public and the media.

Newspapers declared that they would lead the way, the Mailbeing particularly vocal in announcing it would not use paparazzi pictures in future without its owner's knowledge. How strict has it been? This week, its pages and website are busy with long-lens shots of women in bathing suits and stars stumbling out of nightclubs.

The paparazzi culture did not die with Diana. Instead, it entered a new golden age. Celebrities were papped not just on the beach or on their doorsteps, but in the supermarket, the garage and wherever a civilian with a camera phone happened to spot them. Some celebrities orchestrate opportunities - just as Diana did - but ultimately the culture changed only in a way that was not predicted, or promised, during the weeks after her death.

Remember too that the News of the Worldremained the biggest seller even five years after the emergence of the phone-hacking scandal.

This is not about being haughty – tabloids are too often written off as one-dimensional by broadsheet rivals. Nor is the stereotype entirely accurate of tabloids as working-class-only publications. In the UK, of the News of the World's 7.5 million readers, 2.75 million were classed as ABC1, more than the Sunday Timesor other "quality" Sundays. Instead, the News of the World's horrible tactics were the extreme symptom of a market in which crime, celebrity, gossip and outrage sold, but also of an industry under fierce pressure in a market diminished by web intrusion.

McMullan’s voice nagged in the media subconscious all week. We were giving readers what they wanted, he was saying, so there should be no surprise or hypocrisy about the methods. In time we will discover if a week of force fed outrage will actually change a cultural appetite.

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