Bullshit.com: How The Dail Mail Won The Web
THE Daily Mail online is the most-read news site in the Western world. The website is the subject of a piece in Esquire entitled “Bullshit.com”.
The headline comes from Dacre’s comment at the Daily Mail summer party at Hampton Court:
“A lot of people say that the internet is the future for newspapers. Well, I say to that: bullshit.com.”
Helen Lewis has been picking out the best bits:
* Martin Clarke [editor] shock: “You can only do so much showbiz in a postmodern ironic way before it becomes tedious.”
* “The animals that do best are monkeys, dogs and cats… You can’t do kittens in tea cups any more. That’s twee.”
* “Showbiz content is only between 25 and 35 per cent of their traffic’ Clarke: ‘It annoys me when ppl say we do well just cos of the showbiz.”
* ‘Critics have accused Mail Online of misogyny; Clarke says the copy mirrors the way most women talk about each other.”
* “There is a trade-off for this speed. The website has more spelling errors than the newspapers.”
* Clarke on Mail success: “It’s back to basics – getting the who, what, when, where, why into the story. We use old-fashioned headlines.”
* Clarke once bollocked a snapper on a doorstep for failing to get pix of a female celeb. Snapper: She didn’t leave the house! Clarke: “I know she did, because I drove past at 6am this morning and felt her car bonnet. It was warm.”
* Martin Clarke “is known for his trademark black trenchcoat and catchphrase ‘I want every cough and spit’.”
* Esquire recounts loads of bonkers MO comments, inc guy on Knut story who said it was dangerous to give children teddy bears.
* ‘The first sign of Mail Online turning into a cultural phenomenon came when you began to hear women talking about “red arrowing” someone.’
All newspapers can now follow the Mail’s model of scantily-clad women having their cellulite whipped by an outraged reader’s marmalade-coated tongue….
Posted: 3rd, December 2011 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
