The big media story of the weekend was the resignation of the editor of the News Of The World after the paper's royal editor, Clive Goodman, was jailed for four months after pleading guilty to plotting to intercept various phone messages from both celebrities and members of the royal family. Glenn Mulcaire, the man hired by the paper to do the bugging, got six months. It's been a big story in the media world which we haven't really reported on (it not be strictly music media news), but which could be a wake up call to tabloid media types who believe the ends justify the means in their bid to scoop the latest celebrity scandal.
As soon as the sentence was passed, the paper's editor, Andy Coulson, announced he accepted ultimate responsibility for Goodman and Mulcaire's criminal acts, and that he was resigning as a result. Insiders say Coulson had let his bosses know his intent to go a few weeks back, but that they had asked him to stay on until the buggers' trial was complete.
Bosses at NOTW publishers News International spoke highly of Coulson when confirming his resignation, while immediately announcing that he will be replaced by former Sunday Mirror editor Colin Myler, a somewhat ironic appointment under the circumstances, given that Myler previously bowed out of the UK tabloid sector back in 2001 after it was ruled the Sunday Mirror had been in contempt of court when it ran an interview with a relative of an alleged victim in an assault case against Leeds footballers Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate (an interview which caused the case against Bowyer to collapse).