The news that The News of the World is to shut down is a complete shock. No one would have predicted this when this story first started going and it is a sign that no one can be confident of where or how this story will end.
The expectation now is that The Sun will move to a seven day operation, something that was under consideration before this whole fire storm broke out but only in a long-term planning kind of way.
As a journalist, it is always a very sad business when a newspaper shut down. There is in, some ways, a huge unfairness here too as the incidents that got the paper into all this trouble did not happen under the current editor.
But the closure of The News of the World does not mark the end of the story. Labour MPs are already talking about using an opposition day motion next week to address News International’s attempt to take over BSkyB.
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