News of the World: Some are paying for the sins of others

Unbelievable - as Lord Sugar declares on The Apprentice when the candidates run into trouble again on their latest task.

Just when journalists seem to have most bases covered in the ever bubbling phone-hacking scandal, bang - the focus jumps from the abhorrent to the completely unexpected.

The decision to close the News of the World after 168 years is a short-term rush to judgment and precisely the sort of dramatic gesture that should be avoided now.

The short-term view is understandably our stock in trade, and planning can consist of little more than charting a path to the next deadline, edition, programme, bulletin. But with the storm overhead, better to avoid peremptory action and think long term, think strategy.

As was said about Ireland's Troubles in the past, complex problems require complex answers. So if the exit path looks straightforward, obviously someone hasn't understood the issue.

I walked into my newsroom on Thursday just after the news about the "end of the World" had broken and it was one of those times when the buzz of conversation and louder than usual audio from news feeds told you something was up. To close a newspaper seemed so unlikely that at first I processed the headline projected on the wall as simply the axing of the last edition of last Sunday's newspaper.

The clandestine recording of bereaved families has rightly provoked anger, as it revisits and exacerbates the grief of those already caught in the headlights of publicity at a time they least need it. But it's the victims who are controlling our reaction, vulnerable people being exploited. If such subterfuge were employed to bring serious criminal activity to light, we would not be shouting so loudly for it to be outlawed.

In a competitive industry where guidelines are lacking or unclear, organisations end up making their own rules and with stretched resources and insatiable demands to deliver exclusive stories, the door is left open for rogue operators to cross an ill-defined boundary.

To deal with this requires agreed guidelines able to stand the test of time. It should not be handled by consigning newspapers to history, imperilling hundreds of jobs - innocent workers who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

News International chief executive James Murdoch said he understood "how unfair these decisions may feel". He went on to say: "You may see these changes as a price loyal staff at the News of the World are paying for the transgression of others." Talk about the sins of the fathers being visited on the children.

That past-oriented view is also deflecting attention away from the News International's greater project, the attempt by Rupert Murdoch to be allowed to take full control of the broadcaster BSkyB. This is a venture it has to keep on course, such are its potential riches. Everything must defer to it, and if conscientious and committed journalists have to sacrificed on its altar, so be it.

The move to shut down the News of the World is likely to backfire, though. News International has to fill the void. No organisation would voluntarily vacate a gap in the market worth tens of millions of pounds a year. Stand by to see what rides to the rescue, for surely something will.

"Short" has become the new "long" as far as planning and problem solving goes, but Paul Polman, the chief executive of Unilever no less, had it right this week when he decried the culture of short-termism, urging investors who wanted to make a quick buck to avoid his company. "Uniliever has been around for 100-plus years. We want to be around for several hundred more."

An accompanying report highlighed the way executives are often distracted from activities that create long-term value. If only his words were heeded within the newspaper industry.

Tim Verney is a journalist and sector connector for MediaNet, a network of Christians working in the media