THE power of the press (media) is over-stated as the demise of the 168-year-old News of the World, one of the world’s most famous newspapers, has proven. The paper closed because it was obvious that the scandal would result in business losses.

Few societies today have the morality to judge the publication’s abhorrent behaviour beyond the hurt it can impose on people’s privacy, the main ingredient that News of The World sold for years to the titillation of its readers who applauded its recklessness unless they were victims.

Its controversial demise is a befitting end for a paper that reeled from one controversy to another. Public revulsion has often trailed the style of the paper’s newsgathering, which included secret taping and filming of incidents, invasion of privacy, and as investigations are revealing payment to police officers for information. None of these and the series of libel cases and complaints to the United Kingdom Press Council could take News of the World down.

What finally got the paper, which by 1950 had become the biggest-selling newspaper in the world with a weekly sales of 8,441,000 and some editions that sold over 9 million copies (2.6 million copies by last April), was advertisers pulling out their business from a publication that was immersed in bad controversy. Among the threats was that of Church of England which had investments worth four million pounds in the News Corp, parent company of the paper.

James Murdoch, tipped to succeed his father Rupert as chairman of News International, the conglomerate that bought burrowed into the British media market in 1969, said, “The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account.

But it failed when it came to itself. Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper.” The edition of 10 July, the last, blazoned THANK YOU & GOOD BYE. Proceeds from sales were donated to good causes.

“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,” read 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.”

The scandal that hit the public most was that the paper hacked the mobile phone of 13-year-old murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 while her family and police desperately searched for her. The paper’s operatives reportedly deleted some messages from the phone’s voicemail, deceiving the girl’s parents that she was still alive.

Scandals are unending. A police chief has resigned over payments to the police. Sean Hoare, 47, a former News of the World journalist who blew the whistle on the extent of phone hacking was found dead Monday. He had accused his former editor, Andy Coulson, of complicity in the illegality.

Police said his death was “unexplained.” Prime Minister David Cameron employed Coulson as his Downing Street media strategist after he quit his post at the News of the World, which could have been sacrificed to ward off negative fallout over Murdock’s 12 billion-pound ($19 billion) deal to take over satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said of the closure: “It’s a big act but I don’t think it solves the real issues. I’m interested in those who were responsible being brought to justice and those who have responsibility for the running of that newspaper taking their responsibility and I don’t think those two things have happened.”

“As the Prime Minister has made clear, he is committed to establishing rigorous public inquiries to make sure this never happens in our country again,” an official statement from Downing Street stated.

Everyone accounts to the people, including the media. The people have more power than the press. How they use that power to improve their state is critical. Politicians will protect themselves. Where the people are emphatic enough, politicians will retreat. This could as well be a major lesson from the fall of News of The World.