News of the World Is No More 

News of the World hits newsstands for last time

Britain's News of the World hit the newsstands for the last time on Sunday, ending its 168-year history of scoops and scandal with the headline "Thank You and Goodbye."

In London, issues of News of the World are rolling hot off the presses for the last time, the paper shuttered as a result of a hacking scandal that extends to the British government. 

The newspaper that prided itself on being the first to break a story, even if it was rooted in salacious suspicion, is shutting down after 168 years, leaving its 270 person staff without jobs.

Dan Wootton, the Showbiz editor of News of the World, lamented the paper's demise. 

"I am so proud of my colleagues who have continued this week in absolutely trying and very personally and professionally difficult circumstances in such a professional manner," he said.

A statement on the paper's website blamed the demise on staff from previous years, apparently trying to distance current employees from the scandal. 

"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," the statement said. "Quite simply, we lost our way. Phones were hacked, and for that this newspaper is truly sorry." 

hese arrests are just the tip of the iceberg in the growing allegations against News Corp., including reports that News of the World hacked into politicians' and celebrities' voicemail and allegedly hacked into families' voicemails of Britain's fallen soldiers.