If the words News of the World have any meaning for you you’ll know that the last 24 hours have not been British journalism’s finest moments.
What started as a minor journos-intercept-royalty/celebrities/PR guru’s-voicemail scandal [shrug] changed to incandescent public rage as we more recently heard targets – up to 4,000 has been suggested – also included the likes of a murdered schoolgirl and widows of servicemen killed abroad. One R Murdoch – with eyes on acquiring full control of the BSkyB satellite TV service – has consequently axed a Sunday tabloid going for the best part of 200 years (cynics reckon its relaunch as the seventh day edition of The Sun daily has been planned awhile), a former editor is among those arrested, the British Prime Minister has been fending off the media all Friday morning for employing the aforementioned former editor as a spin doctor until Janauary, and, well, this will run a while yet.
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Autos angle? Mostly comments earlier this week about withdrawing, reviewing, or not using the paper for advertising while enquiries continue. Ford, Vauxhall and Renault have all been mentioned; Renault has in the last hour Tweeted: “Pending the formal investigations, we currently have no advertising planned in any News International press titles in the immediate future” and “As a result of the seriousness of the continued allegations of phone hacking by NOTW, Renault is reviewing its media advertising plans.”
Away from what satirical magazine Private Eye calls “the street of shame” (a reference to the fact that Britain’s key papers were, until Murdoch took on the print unions in the mid-80s and relocated his to a fortress-like building in Wapping in the East End, once clustered around Fleet Street in London, so named for the river underneath), it was autobiz as usual. Our Man in the US worked well into his Independence weekend off wrapping up the June sales numbers and reckons we shouldn’t yet write off ideas of a 13m year.
With 18,000 orders on the books already, JLR started Evoque production at Halewood (effectively replacing the Jag X-type there alongside the Freelander) and Opel’s workers continued to press GM for direction on if the brand will be sold.
We also had an update on Lotus plans and spent time with Nexteer in Poland. We also took time to consider the European potential for microcars. We also took a look at India.
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By GlobalDataHave a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
