Should We Be Grateful To Such Newspapers As The Daily Mail?

[anotheoldgit]

Is it advantageous for national newspapers such as the Daily Mail to report on various stories which for some strange reason other papers fail to report on?

[andy-hughes]

Not especially.

It would appear from the phrasing of your OP that you perceive the Mail as being a crusading paper that addresses stories which are not addressed by others.

I suggest that this is according them with a degree of morality and desire to expose uncomfortable truths that would otherwise remain hidden.

The Mail functions like any other daily paper - it adopts and adheres to its agenda which is both supported and driven by its readership - and its primary function is to obtain advertising revenues for its owners.

My point is that, in common with all other papers, the Mail's bottom line is readership and revenue, and the notion that it is crusading is, in my view, erroneous.

[Islay]

You appear to think of the Daily Mail as some sort of knight in shiny armour!
They are money makers and they know what their readers like so they will continue to print their stories in order to keep the 'readership' happy!

[andy-hughes]

Indeed Islay - I reiterate my point - The Mail has been involved in some successful campaigning journalism, but to suggest that it is anything more than a happy by-product of its need to drive ads and revenue, is to accord it a sense of moral responsibility, which I don't believe it possesses.

Not because it's The Mail - my view is the same of all media outlets.

[cassa333]

All the papers report on things others miss at some point.

No one paper is any better at it than the others.

Some papers however concentrate more time and effort on a particular story angle so may get in first.

[Garaman]

Yes, I think it is a good thing to have a paper aimed mainly at women.

[sp1814]

AOG

Absolutely.

Same as other publications.

However, unlike other newspapers the Daily Mail keeps posting stories about teenage girls who are (allegedly) 'all grown up'.

I think that this damages their brand - together with the paper's ongoing need to report on everything that Kim Kashadian and their brood do.

I think it's a poor newspaper due to the amount of clickbait it publishes, plus the shameful scraping of content from Bored Panda, together with the number of times it's transgressed Betteridge's Law.

Additionally, the sheer volume of churnalism that it publishes as 'news' is appalling.

But in answer to your question - it's absolutely vital that the Daily Mail continues to publish stories that its readership wants to read, and it is not wrong for the paper to editorialise within news content.

This is the same as any other publication.

[sp1814]

By the way AOG - a question.

I have seen many pot shots taken at loads of publications I read (Independent, New Statesman, Guardian), but have never felt the need to defend them, because I'm a content consumer rather than a content creator (I don't work for any of those publications).

Why do feel the need to defend the Daily Mail?

Are you Paul Dacre?

By the way - does anyone know why Paul Dacre is called 'The Vagina Monologue'?

I do.

It's grim.

[sp1814]

Also AOG - I'm seriously impressed with your 'hammer attack doctor' filtering system.

[Tilly2]

The Daily Mail is a rag.

[237SJ]

It's a popular rag though

[Cloverjo]

I didn't know before, but it's easy to guess why he's called TVM.

[Tilly2]

Scary that, 237.

[237SJ]

Well it is scary but that is the way it is. As someone who dishes out free newspapers to customers I can tell you that the Mail is very popular. Mainly with women - men tend to feel the need to make excuses for why they ask for it

[DTCwordfan]

The true scandal gets left for P-Eye.....otherwise the lawyers go into bat. P.E covers its arrse brilliantly with its maybe or perhaps references....

[choux]

Possibly, so long as we can distinguish between news and stories in the national press.

[mikey4444]

Apart from the sterling job that the DM did for Stephen Lawrence, I can't see that we should be grateful at all. Its the same old, same old most of the time.....look for a story with immigrants in it and then plaster that all over the front page !

[Islay]

Yes Mikey but one wonders if they would be so quick to start a campaign for an immigrant being beaten to death!!

[mikey4444]

Islay....you may very well be right ! I have praised the paper for its marvellous job over Lawrence, but I have often thought that if he had been a young lad called Mohammed and had come from the Middle East, the silence from the DM would have been deafening !