The final edition of the News of the World is set to almost double its sales to five million copies and become a "collectors' item" according to newspaper industry analysts.
NOTW showbiz editor Dan Wooten has told Sky News that the paper, which usually sells around 2.6 million copies on a Sunday, will be upping its circulation to five million.
The National Federation of Retail Newsagents said that the tabloid could have sales up to 30 per cent higher than usual.
Anne Bingham, from the NFRN, told BBC News: "Many people will be buying it as a collectors' item. We're expecting sales to be well in excess of the normal 2.6 million."
Deputy Editor Jamie Lyons tweeted: "At my NOTW desk for the last time. Let's go out with a bang." He added that the NOTW was "the greatest paper in the land".
James Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corp in Europe, said on Thursday that the paper would close after widespread protests by readers and advertisers following reported phone hacking by its reporters.
Murdoch also announced that the final edition would not carry commercial advertising but would instead give free space to charitable organisations. It is not currently known which charities have taken Murdoch up on the offer to appear in the last copies of the 168-year-old newspaper.