Please come back to us, News International advertisers are begged

Rupert Murdoch has written letters to about 60 of News International's top advertisers to woo them back after their boycott of the News of the World, which led to its closure.

Top brands such as Ford, Halifax, the Co-operative Group and Everything Everywhere pulled their adverts from the Sunday red-top.

Most have continued to advertise with sister titles The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.

"As a major advertising investor in our newspapers, I wanted to write to you personally to state how deeply sorry we are for the wrongdoing committed at the paper," wrote Murdoch in the letter that landed on some advertisers' desks this morning.

"I want to reassure you that we are taking concrete steps to resolve these issues," he added, thanking advertisers for "your collaborative approach".

Renault is thought to be the only advertiser which has said it will not advertise in News International's titles because of the hacking scandal.

But there are reports that some readers have been shunning the papers. Sales of The Times and The Sun have reportedly fallen by about 20,000 a day or more in the past week.

Murdoch appointed Tom Mockridge, boss of pay-TV firm Sky Italia, as chief executive of News International on Friday in a bid to rescue the company's reputation after Rebekah Brooks' departure.