Journalists crafted the newspaper's own obituary before sending the tabloid's final edition to the printing presses overnight, apologising for letting its readers down but stopping short of acknowledging recent allegations that staff paid police for information.
"We praised high standards, we demanded high standards but, as we are now only too painfully aware, for a period of a few years up to 2006 some who worked for us, or in our name, fell shamefully short of those standards," reads a message posted on the tabloid's website.
"Quite simply, we lost our way. Phones were hacked, and for that this newspaper is truly sorry."
For the final edition the newspaper's front and back pages were covered with a collage of images of past exclusives and scoops.
Text: AP
Image: A stack of the last edition of the `News of the World` is placed at a newspaper vendor in central London, Sunday, July 10, 2011. (Photographs copyright AP)
