News of the World closes after big name retailers withdraw support

Once Sainsbury's, Co-Op and the other major brands withdrew their support, the News of the World must have realised that the game was up. There is rarely any way back once a brand gets linked to stories as emotive as phone hacking of 7/7 survivors’ families.

It is also worth considering that social media may have caused the story to travel a lot quicker and reach a lot more people than traditional news stories, bringing a 168 year old newspaper to its demise more quickly than anyone could have guessed.

The advertisers themselves, big brands all, cannot afford even to be in the same room as News of the World and, while they may come back through a 7-day a week Sun newspaper, they will not be coming back for News of the World.

- Chris Field