The 168-year-old British tabloid News of the World is being shut down in response to a major hacking scandal, prompting Felix Salmon to conclude that, "Rupert Murdoch is quite astonishingly inept at crisis management."
But Jack Shafer insists that Murdoch has pulled off the ultimate "Reverse Ferret":
Although the 2.66 million circulation News of the World will die after its last edition Sunday, the newspaper's ferret is still very much alive and may soon have a new home. The Guardian, whose investigations under reporter Nick Davies uncovered the phone-hacking outrages, has already spotted the furry creature migrating to another Murdoch-owned London tabloid. The Guardian reports, "There are already industry rumours that the News of the World's stablemate the Sun could be turned into a seven-day operation."
Does an eyebrow-raising topic coupled with a local venue qualify as “hyperlocal” content — and does it even matter, so long as the clicks are there? AOL's Patch doesn't seem to be bothered by the distinction.