The announcement that the News of the World is to close was met with an audible gasp of shock in the newsroom.
Rebekah Brooks and James Murdoch faced a small group of senior management at the tabloid before talking to the rest of the staff.
They were flanked by two security men as they delivered the astonishing news that the newspaper with a history dating back nearly 170 years was to publish its final edition this weekend.
When they made the announcement, the entire office gasped with disbelief, and many staff burst into tears.
Afterwards, editor Colin Myler asked Mrs Brooks to leave the newspaper's offices.
He then addressed the staff himself.
He was shaking and had tears in his eyes because he himself had only been told of the news 20 minutes beforehand.
Staff were left standing around in shock, not knowing what to do or what was going to happen to them.
Mr Myler then went into a meeting with News International staff, after which he planned to take questions from his own colleagues.
Staff members spoke of their fury at the fact Mrs Brooks will be keeping her job while theirs were sacrificed.
The News International chief executive was editor of the NOTW at the time the phone hacking took place.
She has always denied any knowledge of the practice - but the fact remains that many of the current staff were not there at the time.
One staff member told Sky News there was a "lynch mob mentality" towards Mrs Brooks.
"For the sake of one person, 500 people at the NOTW have been sacrificed," he said.
Another told Sky they had found out about the closure from watching its live coverage.
"If she had done the honourable thing and quit we would all still have our jobs," he said.
A clue that the paper may one day be brought back in a different form has been uncovered by Sky.
The internet domain name thesunonsunday.co.uk was registered on July 5 to a company called Media Spring.
919 comments