Major advertisers including Ford, Coca-Cola and T-Mobile are either pulling their spending from NOTW or considering doing so.

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The problem is that other newspaper companies, especially Trinity Mirror, have rushed into the vacuum created by the disappearance of NotW and its 2.6 million weekly copies.

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"The hashtag of 'notw' is very dominant, at least in my feed, " said Robert Hernandez, assistant professor of professional practice at the communication school of the University of Southern California.

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Even so, scrapping NotW is a sure sign the Murdochs are fearful the continuing stream of hacking revelations is on the verge of derailing their takeover of British Sky Broadcasting Group.

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Social media such as Twitter also showed the scandal as a hot topic, cited under the hashtag shorthand of "notw" for News of the World, the Murdoch publication that was shut down this month because of phone-hacking allegations, experts said.

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They allege that the failure to effectively investigate and address the wrongdoing by employees of NotW and its parent division, News International, when it first came to light six years ago is part of a broader pattern of lax corporate governance and self-dealing at News Corp.

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