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July 8, 2011

Murdoch: No decision made on launching Sunday Sun

By Dominic Ponsford

The domain name Sunonsunday.com was registered on Tuesday – ahead of the announcement yesterday that the News of the World will close.

But yesterday News Corp Europe and Asia boss James Murdoch said that no decision has yet been made on whether The Sun will be moving to a seven-day operation after the News of the World publishes its last edition this weekend.

Some 250 News of the World staff – most of whom are journalists – were told yesterday that after Saturday they will be on gardening leave for three months.

This is effectively in lieu of the 90 days consultation employers are legally bound to make when more than 100 staff are being laid off.

It has already been revealed that the News of the World’s awarding-winning magazine supplement – Fabulous – is to be incorporated into The Sun.

At the time the closure was announced yesterday, sub-editors at The Sun were being consulted on changing their shift-patterns to apparently incorporate production of the News of the World.

On 29 June, News International announced a management shake-up with Richard Caseby made group managing editor across the Sun and the News of the World and Anoushka Healy made group managing editor fo The Times and Sunday Times.

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At the time News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks said: ‘Where appropriate we will find ways of introducing seven-day-working.”

James Murdoch was asked last night on Sky News: Will there by a Sunday Sun?

He said: ‘We are concentrating very much on putting out the last issue of the News of the World. Decisions about the future are for next week or for the week after.”

In June the News of the World sold an average of 2,657,22 copies a week meaning that it still dominates the Sunday newspaper market. It sold 700,000 more copies a week than the Mail on Sunday and more than double that of the Sunday Mirror which had a circulation of 1,086,961.

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