Murdoch titles claim victory in Big Brother bidding war

Rupert Murdoch's News International has emerged as the winner of the Big Brother newspaper bidding war after paying £500,000 for exclusive interviews with Jade Goody.

Following a frantic media auction, the Sun and the News of the World outbid their tabloid rivals to win exclusive access to Goody, the 21-year-old dental nurse from south London who although not the winner was arguably the real star of the show.

The sum is more than double what the Sun and the News of the World paid for exclusive interviews with Helen Adams, last year's Big Brother runner-up, and reflects the huge popularity of this year's show.

The audience figures for Friday night's Big Brother final peaked at 9.9 million, over 1 million more than last year's final, which peaked at 8.8m, according to unofficial overnight figures.

Even though 22-year-old Kate Lawler walked away with the £70,000 prize money from the third series of the reality TV show, newspaper bosses decided their readers were more interested in Goody, whose antics in the house have won her both vilification and affection from the public.

News International fought off a rival bid from Richard Desmond's Express Group, believed to be at least £300,000. Mr Desmond said he wanted Goody on the front page of OK! magazine "at any cost", according to sources.

The News of the World lost no opportunity to gloat over its coup. "We've got her!" boasted the paper's strapline yesterday.

Across two double-page spreads, Goody revealed details of her difficult childhood, how she struggled to look after her disabled mother and what really happened with PJ under the covers. More "red hot Jade revelations" appear in today's Sun.

But the decision to bid for Goody marks a major turnaround for the two newspapers.

Just a few weeks ago Dominic Mohan, the editor of the Sun's showbiz column, Bizarre, was urging readers to evict Goody from the house with the slogan "Vote out the pig".

"Jade is one of the most hated women on British TV and life will be hard for her when she leaves the house," he wrote.

But by the show's final week the Sun was forced to concede that its readers were backing Goody to win.

"She staged an astonishing recovery and last night was the favourite in our survey," reported the redtop last Wednesday. The paper even published 10 "goody" reasons to voted for her.

The Express Group had to settle for 23-year-old male model Alex Sibley. Extracts from an exclusive interview with Sibley, which will appear in OK! magazine on Thursday, were published in yesterday's Sunday Express and in the Express today.

The Daily Star, also owned by the Express, decided its readers were more interested in Goody. The tabloid splashed today on the "saucy secrets of our Jade", in an attempt to compete with the Sun's exclusive access.

The Sun was keen to make the most of its exclusive access, advertising its interview with Goody as "the one they all wanted" and warning its readers to "accept no imitations".

The second instalment of the show from 10pm to 11.30pm attracted an average of 9.4m viewers and a 49% share of the audience - Channel 4's highest-ever daily share in its 19-year history.