With most thinking people figuring that the loss of Rupert Murdoch’s News of The World was not much of a loss to society, and only ever filled a much-needed gap, those buying the last issue will have noticed that every single ad was given away to charities.

These replaced the advertisers who deserted in droves, as swiftly as formerly fawning politicians, after details of the phone hacking emerged, and are still emerging. However, according to a report in Private Eye many charities, including the RNLI and two of News International’s own designated charities, didn’t want to be tainted by association with the Murdoch rag.

One that reportedly saw an obvious benefit was journalism ethics charity MediaWise whose submitted ad asked: “Ever been turned over by a tabloid? Got something to tell the inquiry into press ethics? Think it’s time for self-regulation to grow teeth?”

Sadly Rupert’s brave soldiers claimed there was no space to run it.