I spoke with Mark Hudson a former employee at the News of the World who delved into his time as a journalist and the scandal that shocked the world from within the newsroom. 


The News of the World was known at one point for being the world’s highest-selling English language newspaper, breaking news from celebrity gossip to current affairs. Hudson gave the vision of the company being similar to a tight knit family as he jokingly reminisced on their light hearted ritual which became a sad and distant memory. He recalled the scandal the News of the World had come to be involved with, those at the top of the company reassured their employees the cases would blow over, and as far as they were concerned the case was not as serious as it came to be revealed. The scandals were aired out by other news outlets that the News of the World were guilty of phone hacking people, but the case became deeply serious following on from the information that journalists from the newspaper had hacked, teenage girl, Milly Dowler’s voicemails to try and gain further insight into her abduction. 


Panic set in once the initial reassuring tone from the leadership board became a shouting match in the office in regards to what could be done to salvage the already crumbling remains of the newspaper. Hudson recalls being called to congregate with all his other colleagues as they were told the company would be shut down. He had not only lost his job but also received a ton of hate via social media, which at the time was fuelled with outrage from the breaking news story of the scandal. He morbidly joked about the time a twitter user commented under his twitter to “stick his fist up his a**” to which he replied that he had tried but he failed. He explained the ritual they had when a journalist left the company, in which one person would begin banging on the desk and others would follow suit to drown out the baring noise of the printers. In 2011, on the last day of the company in operation everyone walked out with the noise of a single individual banging as everyone walked out instead. Despite the awful reality of what had been committed by some journalists from the news of the world and the loss of his job, Hudson retold the story with a slight smile as he looked back on his time.