New Sunday title likely, says analyst

Media analysts said News International was likely to try to hang on to the readership of the News of the World with a new Sunday title.

Nicholas Grant, an analyst with Mediatrack, said: “It’s an extraordinary development. It’s absolutely staggering. It’s changed the news-scape.

“The snow ball just picked up speed. The advertising was haemorrhaging and they knew it was only going to get worse.”

He continued: “Initially there’s going to be a scramble for readership among the other papers.

“But (News International) are not going to throw their readers away very easily. They are not going to want to surrender that audience.”

However, he added: “They wouldn’t be stupid enough to try and bring out a snap new title next week.”

He said the shock closure would have been designed to take the market by surprise.

And he added that it would take some of the heat off Rebekah Brooks, News International’s chief executive.

But he added: “I don’t understand why the relationship between (Rupert Murdoch and Ms Brooks) is so close. Basically she is one of many.”

If the paper was to relaunch under a new name it would not be able to use the title the Sunday Sun, as this already exists in Newcastle.

The domain names thesunonsunday.co.uk and thesunonsunday.com have both been registered.