Potent mix of sex, drugs and celebs - Daily Mirror

By RACHAEL BLETCHLY

BEFORE its name became sullied beyond repair, the News Of The World was famous for its celebrity exposs, hard-hitting investigations and campaigns.

Earlier this year it won Scoop of the Year at the British Press Awards for revealing alleged match fixing involving Pakistans international cricketers.

It famously campaigned for Sarahs Law to allow public access to the paedophiles register and was renowned for its numerous stings involving the fake sheik, reporter Mazher Mahmood.

Even royals were not immune with Prince Harry embarrassed by a video in which he used racist language to a soldier pal.

But its lurid revelations about the rich and famous were what attracted readers, with drugs and sex scandals foremost.

In 1986 Jeffrey Archer quit as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party after he was accused of trying to pay off call-girl Monica Coghlan to avoid a scandal.

Avuncular BBC sports anchor Frank Bough was caught using cocaine and vice girls in 1986. A front page on David Beckhams alleged affair with his PA Rebecca Loos made waves worldwide.

The populist approach has been there since the paper was founded by the Bell family in 1843, featuring salacious descriptions of court cases and police probes.

It was sold to Lascelles Carr, owner of the Western Mail, in 1891, whose nephew Emsley Carr had a 50-year stint as editor, raising circulation from its initial 12,000 to four million copies by 1939.

By 1950, under its slogan all human life is there, the News of the World had a weekly sale of almost 8.5 million.

Its photo of the naked Christine Keeler during the Profumo affair is one of the abiding images of the Sixties.

Rupert Murdoch beat rival Robert Maxwell to take control of the paper in 1969, his first Fleet Street title. He changed it from a broadsheet to a tabloid in 1984.

In recent years, there have been some misfires. Formula 1 boss Max Mosley won a privacy case over a story about his role-playing games with prostitutes.

In 2006, the papers phone hacking woes first surfaced, costing editor Andy Coulson his job. Little did anyone suspect that it would lead to the loss of the entire paper.