The Sun on Sunday to launch next weekend

News International's new Sunday tabloid newspaper, The Sun on Sunday, will hit the newsstands next weekend, just one week after the launch plans were announced by Rupert Murdoch.

The Sun confirmed the move to a seven-day operation today, telling readers: "We are answering your clamour for a Sunday edition of the nation's favourite paper."

Sun editor Dominic Mohan said the Sun's future "can now be reshaped as a unique seven-day proposition in both print and digital".

News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch visited staff at News International's Wapping headquarters on Friday, following a series of arrests among key Sun journalists as part of the Metropolitan police investigation into alleged bribery of public officials.

As well as announcing that the arrested staff, who are on police bail, were welcome to return to work, Murdoch also confirmed the Sun on Sunday launch.

News International has been tipped to launch a new Sunday title since the closure of the News of the World last summer. Staff have been secretly working on the new publication since January.

Murdoch said in an email to staff last week: "Our duty is to expand one of the world's most widely read newspapers and reach even more people than ever before. Having a winning paper is the best answer to our critics.

"I am even more determined to see The Sun continue to fight for its readers and its beliefs. I am staying with you all, in London, for the next several weeks to give you my unwavering support. I am confident we will get through this together and emerge stronger."

Former News of the World political editor David Wooding, who will take up the same role at the Sun on Sunday, told Sky News yesterday: "I'm told there will be extra staff taken on but this is not the News of the World in another guise, this is the Sun publishing on another day."

The Hacked Off campaign, which represents some of the alleged victims of News of the World phone-hacking, said in a statement: "This new paper is an opportunity for News International to show that it has turned over a new leaf and will behave legally and professionally."

In its last full month of circulation, last June, the News of the World recorded a circulation of 2,667,428, according to official figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

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