NEWS INTERNATIONAL is to re-enter the Sunday tabloid market, which it quit when Rupert Murdoch last year closed the News of the Worldafter it emerged some of its reporters had hacked the mobile telephone of murder victim Milly Dowler, it was reported last night.
Labour MP Tom Watson, who helped to lead the charge against News International over hacking, said he had been told that Mr Murdoch had already seen draft designs of the proposed Sunday tabloid. It would be launched, he said, at the end of April “at a discounted price”.
Senior journalists have been working on the project since January, with some reports suggesting that the new title will be The Sunday Sun, though there is a newspaper of that name – not owned by News International – operating in England's northeast.
News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary, registered two Sunday title trademarks Sun on Sundayand The Sun on Sundayjust 24 hours after the closure of News of the Worldlast July, according to Intellectual Property Office records.
Up to its closure, the News of the Worldwas the most profitable title in the Murdoch stable, making about £40 million a year. The cost of shutting it down put a near-£60 million dent in the finances of parent group News Corporation. Last night, News International said: "We decline to comment on that. We haven't got a comment on that."
Meanwhile, other sources within the group indicated that the timetable put forward by Mr Watson was wrong.
The Sunis the most successful daily tabloid in the UK market and News International believes its model – adapted for the Sunday market – can win back readers, many of whom stopped buying any Sunday title after the News of the Worldclosed down.
Meanwhile, there were signals yesterday that the position within News Corporation of Mr Murdoch’s son James has been weakened by his handling of the hacking crisis, after announcements that some London-based executives loyal to him are to be redeployed.
