Hit by the phone hacking scandal, James Murdoch, chairman of News International, has admitted that the company made mistakes and announced the closure of the 168-year-old ‘News of the World’ tabloid at the centre of the row.

The closure of the Britain’s best-selling Sunday tabloid was announced, following a ruckus over its news gathering practices that involved the illegal hacking of phones.

James Murdoch, son of media baron Rupert Murdoch said the tabloid was in the business of holding others to account, but “failed it came to itself”.

The development came amidst public anger and disgust at the tabloid’s use of a private investigator to illegally access messages left in mobile phones of celebrities, victims of crime as well as kin of soldiers who had died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Murdoch narrated the events that led to his decision to close the tabloid, and said: “So, just as I acknowledge we have made mistakes, I hope you and everyone inside and outside the Company will acknowledge that we are doing our utmost to fix them, atone for them, and make sure they never happen again.”

He added: “Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper. This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World. Colin Myler will edit the final edition of the paper. In addition, I have decided that all of the News of the World’s revenue this weekend will go to good causes”.

Admitting that the tabloid wrongly made statements to parliament without being in full possession of the facts of the hacking case, Murdoch said: “The Company paid out-of-court settlements approved by me. I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret.”

Murdoch noted that there were two major and ongoing police investigations, and promised to cooperate fully with both.

Elsewhere, ministers, MPs and media managers scurried to deal with the phone-hacking scandal, as the police revealed that they were contacting as many as 4,000 people whose phone details were found in seized documents.

Public revulsion at the scandal increased today, the sixth anniversary of the 7th July London bombings, when it was revealed that the mobile phones of the victims were also targeted for hacking by a private investigator commissioned by the tabloid for information to be used in stories.

A growing number of companies have decided to suspend their advertising to the tabloid, including Ford, Vauxhall, Mitsubishi, the Co-op, Lloyds, Virgin Holidays and Npower