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A Sunday edition of Britain's best-selling newspaper will launch next week
The Sun has been involved in a broad police investigation into phone hacking and police bribery
The new edition replaces News of the World, which was shuttered in July amid the probe
A Sunday edition of Britain’s best-selling newspaper will launch next week, The Sun announced Sunday, two days after media magnate Rupert Murdoch said those plans were in the works.
The publication date was announced to staff of the embattled newspaper Saturday night by News International Chief Executive Tom Mockridge, according to The Sun. News International is a U.K. subsidiary of Murdoch’s huge News Corp. empire, which has been rattled by a phone-hacking scandal.
“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,” the newspaper quoted Mockridge as saying.
Murdoch announced during a newsroom visit Friday that that paper would move “very soon” to a seven-day publication schedule.
The Sun on Sunday replaces the News of the World, a sister paper to The Sun that was shuttered in July amid the scandal. Police in London are investigating the hacking claims as well as suspected corruption involving public officials.
As part of their investigation, officers on February 11 arrested five senior journalists at The Sun over allegations of improper payments to police and officials. A police officer, an employee of the Ministry of Defence and a member of the armed forces were also detained.
The arrests followed those of four current and former Sun employees two weeks earlier in connection with the same investigation.
Murdoch traveled to London on Friday to visit The Sun staff. His announcement of a Sunday edition appeared to be a bid to boost morale at the paper, where staff have reacted angrily to the arrests and journalistic investigations of their journalistic practices, likening them to a witch-hunt.
Editor Dominic Mohan has said the paper has a readership of more than 7.7 million.
“This is a truly historic moment in newspaper publishing and I am proud to be part of it. The Sun’s future can now be reshaped as a unique seven-day proposition in both print and digital,” Mohan said of the new Sunday edition, according to the paper.