Sun on Sunday to launch next week
The News Corporation boss offered his support to News International journalists last week The Sun on Sunday is to publish for the first time next weekend, News International has announced.
An email to all staff said that Rupert Murdoch, boss of parent company News Corporation, would "be staying in London to oversee the launch".
Mr Murdoch flew in to the UK last week, and told Sun staff that a Sunday edition would be launched "very soon".
News International shut down its Sunday paper, the News of the World, last year amid the scandal over phone hacking.
There had been speculation about the possibility of a Sunday edition of the Sun since then, said BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas.
A gap in the market had been left by the News of the World's closure, he said, but as tabloid sales were declining it was unclear how much demand there was for the Sun for a seventh day a week.
'New dawn'The internal memo from News International chief executive Tom Mockridge said: "As you know, News Corporation has made clear its determination to sort out what has gone wrong in the past and we are fundamentally changing how we operate as a business.
"The commitment of News Corporation to invest in a new edition is the strongest possible message of support we could wish for."
He went on: "This is our moment. I am sure every one of us will seize the opportunity to pull together and deliver a great new dawn for The Sun this Sunday."
A report on the Sun website quoted editor Dominic Mohan as saying: "This is a truly historic moment in newspaper publishing and I am proud to be part of it."
Speaking to BBC News, media commentator Steve Hewlett said: "Some of the plans have been in place for some time. If you are going to do it, you might as well just do it."
Former News of the World political editor David Wooding said: "The readership of the News of the World didn't want that paper to close."
They had wanted justice and for those whose phones had been hacked to be compensated, he said.
"The only people who don't want this new paper are the sort of people who didn't buy it anyway."
ArrestsOn a visit to News International's headquarters in Wapping, east London, on Thursday, Mr Murdoch pledged "unwavering support" for his journalists.
Since last November, 10 current and former Sun senior reporters and executives have been arrested over alleged corrupt payments to public officials.
Anger has been expressed by some Sun staff at the decision of News Corporation's management and standards committee - set up to investigate allegations of wrongdoing - to pass information to the police.
Last week, Mr Murdoch lifted the suspensions of the arrested workers, but said their detentions had been "a "great source of pain", adding: "Illegal activities simply cannot and will not be tolerated."
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