Over 2,000 years later, punctuation still serves essentially the same purpose. Although most words are now written to be read silently to oneself, punctuation continues to tell us how to hear the words in our heads. A few well-placed dots and squiggles let us know when to pause or change inflection.

Having been free to evolve for more than two millennia, punctuation’s bag of tricks unsurprisingly became pretty comprehensive long ago. New punctuation marks rarely emerge blinking into the sunlight. Most disappear from view again almost at once. Rare indeed is the punctuation mark that captures the public’s imagination and becomes part of common English usage. The last example was arguably the introduction of the quotation mark to denote direct speech in the early 18^th century. However, in this world of texts and Twitter, where so much casual conversation is actually written rather than spoken, perhaps one or two forgotten punctuation marks deserve another chance.

Take the interrobang (‽), for example, which, as the name and look suggests, literally combines the interrogation of the question mark with the dramatic stress (or ‘bang’ if you prefer) of the exclamation mark. Introduced in 1967 but hardly ever seen today, surely the interrobang deserves a renaissance for rhetorical exclamations like: “WTF‽” and: “He said what‽”.

And how about a campaign for the use of the wonderfully named sarcastrophe? With office politics meaning peace is often a fragile commodity in the corporate world, friction can easily surface if a well-intentioned email is misinterpreted. A sincere expression of gratitude, like: “You were a great help”, could be seen as a sarcastic rebuke if the over-sensitive reader is having a bad day. Without the tell-tale inflections of speech, irony can easily be overlooked, or mistakenly perceived, when words are simply written down. Unleash the sarcastrophe (^), however, and all becomes clear. The phrase: “You were a great help” offers genuine thanks, but: ^You were a great help^ leaves the recipient in no doubt that their efforts were worse than useless.

Given that punctuation ultimately exists to improve the clarity of communication, it seems odd that something as potentially useful as the sarcastrophe has never really taken off. Perhaps it was a victim of its own success, hoist by its own petard? “The sarcastrophe – oh, yes, that’s a ^really good^ idea.”

Killing off a major brand should be absolutely the last resort in a crisis situation. How could it not be, when so much capital has been invested in creating brand equity? Only if a brand is revealed as rotten from top to bottom should such action be contemplated. On all the available evidence, this was not the case with the News of the World. Only a handful of people still associated with the title – ironically, those still in lucrative employment – seem to have had direct involvement with, or to have held responsibility during, the exposed period of phone hacking. News Corporation shareholders will surely be wondering why these people have not been sacrificed, rather than the altogether more valuable News of the World asset of which they are part owners.

Brand redemption is a well-trodden path (ask BP, Toyota, Sony and Perrier), and one that would surely have been available to the News of the World. The starting point has to be contrition and a sincere wish to put right past misdeeds. A necessary component is, typically, change at the top. However, the seeming determination of the Murdoch family to shield those closest to its heart appears to bar this course of action. Killing off the paper is News International/News Corporation’s alternative strategy.

It is hard to conceive of any other major organisation that would pursue and defend this decision as being in the best interests of shareholders. As some commentators have already suggested, the episode perhaps marks the point at which Rupert Murdoch’s era of invincibility came to an end. In a period of rising shareholder activism, it seems highly likely that a day of reckoning awaits the News Corporation board, perhaps at the company’s next annual general meeting.

Chris Powers, Account Executive

The 80:20 team expands again today, with Chris Powers coming on board as account executive. Chris has just completed his degree in Journalism, during which he managed to secure work experience at national newspapers The Independent and The Mirror, as well as writing his own sports column during a placement at the Portsmouth News. He clearly has the gift of the gab, which bodes well!