The News of the World newspaper lived on its sensational scoops and scandals, but it could not survive the phone-hacking scandal which sunk the 168-year-old title.

The unabashedly sensationalist tabloid was Britain’s biggest-selling Sunday paper, with a circulation of 2.7 million. It claimed to be read by more people than any other English language newspaper.

It was known for years of hard-hitting investigations, exposing wrongdoing, campaigning, and reams of celebrity tittle-tattle.

It had a long history of breaking big stories – but often found itself in the spotlight for other reasons.

The paper is to close after Sunday’s final edition, engulfed in the phone-hacking scandal that has snowballed way beyond the original two convictions.

Dubbed News of the Screws for the sex exposés often found within its pages, the paper was first published in 1843 and has been part of media baron Rupert Murdoch’s stable since 1969.

The populist approach was there from the early days, starting off with a three pence cover price, aimed at capturing a mass market.

By 1950, it achieved a colossal circulation of almost 8.5 million. The paper became a tabloid in 1984.

Many of its biggest scoops in recent years were secured by the notorious “fake sheikh” – its star undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood, who often dressed up as a wealthy Arab to coax indiscretions and admissions out of celebrities. Sophie, Countess of Wessex, Queen Elizabeth II’s daughter-in-law, was caught out in 2001, allegedly exploiting her royal connections to benefit her public relations firm and making disparaging remarks about then prime minister Tony Blair.

The tabloid claims that stories by Mr Mahmood – the son of immigrants from Pakistan who is reputed to be the only journalist in Britain with his own personal bodyguard – have led to more than 100 criminal convictions.

But in July 2006, three suspects were cleared in an anti-terrorism court case brought after Mr Mahmood allegedly unearthed evidence of a plot to buy radioactive mercury.