Audio Of Brooks Meeting NOTW Staff

Sky News has obtained an audio recording of Rebekah Brooks talking to News Of The World staff where she was accused of "contaminating" the paper's journalists.

Workers were angry over the paper shutting down after this Sunday's issue amid the ongoing phone hacking scandal.

News International chief executive Mrs Brooks said she was aware of more revelations to come and employees would understand in a year's time why the paper was closing soon.

There was also worker anger towards Mrs Brooks after it became clear she would keep her job while they were losing theirs.

Staff who were told without warning 24 hours earlier that the best-selling tabloid is to cease production were summoned to the News International offices.

Most of the paper's present editorial staff were not employed there in the period the phone hacking allegedly took place - but Mrs Brooks was, serving as editor before moving on to run The Sun.

Addressing them for the second time in two days, she said she would try to find them jobs elsewhere in the company.

In the recording, one employee told her: "Can't you see that by your actions yesterday, your calling our newspaper toxic, we have all been contaminated by that toxicity by the way we've been treated.

"But can't you see the bigger picture? You're making the whole of News International toxic, and there's an arrogance there that you think we'd want to work for you again."

Mrs Brooks replied that there was "no arrogance coming from this standpoint".

This week, a number of top companies said they were suspending their advertising with the paper amid new phone hacking claims.

Referring to advertisers, Mrs Brooks said they are "so willing to believe anything negative about the News Of The World. No-one wants to be in it this weekend. It was getting worse."

Mrs Brooks said she was staying on because she was "much more useful leading this company through this."

And she hinted more revelations will be made as the phone hacking scandal continues.

"I think in a year's time every single one of you in this room might come up and say 'OK, well I see what you saw now'."

She claimed she would do everything she could "to restore the reputation of the current newsroom".

And she said she was "sorry that people we trusted let us down" and she felt "betrayed".

Mrs Brooks told staff: "If being betrayed is a resignation issue then maybe I've read it wrong, but I think I'm much more useful leading this company through this."

And she added: "Eventually it will come out why things went wrong and who is responsible.

"That will be another very, very difficult moment in this company's history."

Meanwhile, in a letter to all staff, she confirmed she is not in charge of the company's investigation into alleged phone hacking.

She said that no decisions had yet been made about new publications or expanding existing ones, but that Fabulous magazine will be retained.

Mrs Brooks has faced harsh criticism from MPs and other sections of the media, and in the wake of the announcement about the NOTW the Prime Minister also suggested it could be time for her to step down.

Mrs Brooks remains a powerful figure in the national media as well as a personal friend - but the pressure piling on her has evidently changed the PM's thinking.

There have been reports that Mrs Brooks offered her resignation but it was not accepted. Mr Cameron said he would have let her quit .

Mrs Brooks has always denied any knowledge of the dark practices which have led to the closure of Britain's best-selling newspaper - despite the fact they were allegedly taking place during her time as editor.

Mrs Brooks has been repeatedly backed by both Rupert and James Murdoch, even as James admitted the NOTW had been "sullied" by "behaviour that was wrong", and, if, proven to be true, "inhuman".

But he then claimed it was Mrs Brooks' leadership that has really "gotten to grips with this whole period in the company's history".

Her continued presence at the helm of News International makes a stark contrast with the fortunes of another former NOTW editor, Andy Coulson.

Mr Coulson not only resigned from the newspaper but also from his subsequent job as Mr Cameron's head of communications, and has been arrested and later bailed as part of investigations into hacking and corruption.

Along with James Murdoch, Mrs Brooks was the one who delivered the news the NOTW was to close to its stunned staff - prompting what one described as a "lynch mob mentality" against her.