Rupert Murdoch began work today on the first Sunday edition of his top-selling British tabloid The Sun, seven months after the closure of its scandal-ridden sister title News of the World.
Publisher News International said Murdoch would stay in London to oversee the launch this Sunday and confirmed that the editor of the weekday paper, Dominic Mohan, would also edit the Sun on Sunday.
Murdoch, 80, flew in to Britain last week to announce the creation of the new paper and to promise demoralised staff he would stand by them despite the arrest of senior Sun journalists over bribery allegations.
"Rupert Murdoch said during his visit on Friday that a new Sunday title would be published 'very soon' - and that is a week from today," the company's chief executive Tom Mockridge said in an internal memo to staff late last night.
The new Sun will replace the News of the World, a Sunday tabloid which Murdoch shut down in July amid a spiralling scandal over the hacking of voicemails belonging to celebrities, politicians and crime victims.
Murdoch - the chief and founder of the US-based News Corporation media empire - himself took to Twitter shortly after the announcement to say: "Just for the record: Newscorp shares up 60 cents on news of Sun on Sunday. Highest for year."
The 2.5-million-selling Sun splashed the news in black, white and red all over the front page of its Monday edition, saying: "The Sun Next Sunday."
