Search results matching tag 'Daily Express'

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1706712 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:13:00 GMT

Daily Express advertorial. Banned by the ASA on 24 August 2009.

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1706712 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:13:00 GMT

Daily Express advertorial. Banned by the ASA on 24 August 2009.

Is the Mail Online heading for domination with change to moderation policy?

255762 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:01:00 GMT

The news today that the Mail Online is to stop checking user comments before they go live could not only make it the most visited website in the UK, but possibly the one with the largest and most active community. A potentially very powerful combination.

New Media Age is reporting that Associated Newspapers plans to end its long standing policy of pre-moderation. It is, I think, concerns aside, a smart move.

The Mail Online has already stolen the crown of the UK's most visited newspaper website after it boosted traffic in June by 19% and in doing so, attracted over 29m users.

This saw it leapfrogging the Telegraph.co.uk and the Guardian.co.uk to become the most popular UK national newspaper site.

Its stories already attract a large amount of comments (this considering that some - we don't know how many - never get published for various reasons) and it is not uncommon to see articles on its homepage with several hundred comments.

The NMA article looks at some of the problems that ending pre-moderation could pose. There's the issue of what it could do to advertisers who suddenly find themselves next to offensive or legally problematic comments.

It is definitely a cause for concern, but it should be one that a well-funded newspaper website with an active loyal readership should be able to deal with.

One of the problems with pre-moderation is the wait. It can kill debate or the desire to debate. If people don't see their comment go up pretty swiftly they are more likely to be deterred from further interaction. That can hit traffic as well.

The only other title of note out there doing post moderation is the Guardian and it can get many hundreds of comments on its news and blogs posts. The Daily Express and Daily Star also post moderate, but there are so few comments on these sites that it is hardly any kind of comparison. It's lead story had eight comments and a quick look around did not uncover a vast amount of interaction.

A quick tally of this morning's homepages shows, even with moderation still in place, the Mail Online has the most comments. Its lead Baby P story had 113 comments; The Guardian with its jump in unemployment story had 60; the lead story on The Times Online (also unemployment) had one; and the Telegraph doesn't have comments on any of its stories.

Not exactly scientific, and to be fair Times Online has plenty of older stories with a high number of comments (its most commented from yesterday had 106).

All that said it will be very interesting to see what switching to a post moderation system does for the Mail Online. If the number of comments it is receiving with moderation is already high, with post moderation like the Guardian it could rocket. This will have interesting implications for its traffic, which could also receive a boost and perhaps helping to cement its position as the most visited on and commented upon website.

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Tottenham Hotspur the Daily Express of the Premiership

255762 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:24:00 GMT

Martin Samuel in The Times today on Tottenham Hotspur and why the club is like the Daily Express. Made me laugh, well they are both total crap.

Samuel says that anyone who has ever worked at the Daily Express would know why Spurs are in the proverbial latrine. His reasons are pretty straight forward and make perfect sense – it's the endless change, upheaval and inconsistency where no idea is given the time to work (or fail) and where muddled thinking rules.

The same applies to the Daily Express where such high concepts help produce a paper that is so shockingly bad that I can not believe people part with their cash for it unless the readers are all involved in some secret mass experiment judging the affects of long term exposure to doom about house prices, foreigners and the bloody weather. Where would it be without the weather.

Spurs are the same, and while it would be great to see Harry Redknapp succeed at White Hart Lane I not so secretly hope he fails. Miserably. They deserve to be a Championship side. If the Spurs brand should be anywhere that's where it should be. I mean where else would you expect to find a club that calls a grotty part of North London its home. They should knock it down and move out of London. Most of the fans live in Hertfordshire anyway.

It isn't just traits of inconsistency that the two share. Samuel points to the bizarre approach the two have to staffing levels. The Express has of course shed staff by the bucket load (who needs journalists? pah), which is an approach that Daniel Levy at Spurs has also taken (who needs strikers? pah).

The Express has it little chance of regaining past glories. It needs a radical rethink and relaunch, but that will never happen? Not while as Samuel says it is owned by a former porn baron. Where would it go anyway? What would you do with it?

Spurs have at least grasped the nettle and might yet be saved from their true home. Stranger things have happened.

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The disgrace of the Daily Star

255762 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:40:00 GMT

The Daily Star is a poor excuse for a newspaper, maybe even proprietor Richard Desmond is thinking this today as his papers pay out again (to the tapas seven), but he should be ashamed as should the editor of the front page of today's paper with its headline "BBC put Muslims before you!".

Accompanied by a picture of Muslim woman giving two fingers it panders to racism.

The front page refers to a decision by BBC director-general Mark Thompson who has apparently announced a ban on Muslim jokes because they are more sensitive than Christians.

It sounds a ridiculous sweeping decision, which is if true is quite wrong. All groups should be open to having jokes made about them. That's all part of a healthy democracy as is a free press, which comes with an inherent responsibility that the Daily Star sorely lacks.

No surprise is that this year the paper (along with sister title the Daily Express) has paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds to Kate and Gerry McCann and now today their friends the tapas seven.

It tops that, with today's apology, by insulting a whole group of the British population. Nice work.

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Tabloid doom

255762 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:04:43 GMT

In a hilarious piece of selective forecasting in the Evening Standard today, Roy Greenslade predicts the death of certain tabloid newspapers, but failed to mention one key one. Now why could that be?Greenslade kicks off by writing about how newspapes will prevail "once online enthusiasm dies down".

I wouldn't have quite put it like that, I don't see enthusiasm of the pace of digital development dying down, but at the same time I do not see newspapers dying either.

He's right when he points in his piece for the appetite to print, be it in form of our dailies, our free papers or even free magazines.

Sure not all of the print world will survive, but we have lost national and regional newspapers before the advent of the web and we will lose more we forward.

He goes onto make strong claims about the demise of the redtops and the Daily Express, which in a gossip obsessed age seems well wide of the mark. Yes they have lost readers, but the Sun enjoyed a circulation increase of 0.69% from May to 3,064,376. Averaged out over six months, the News International title sells 3,073,046 daily copies, down 2.86% year on year.

The Daily Mirror also experienced a slight rise in circulation in June, up 0.71% from May to 1,565,711. But it suffered one of the worst year-on-year falls of all the national papers -- its six-month average is 1,561,825, a year-on-year decline of 5.54%.

Yes both suffered year-on-year falls, but between them they sell almost 5m copies (more than 5m if you throw in the Daily Star). The Daily Star alone (795,891) outsells the Independent (surely in five years that will be all views and no news?) and The Guardian. Not exactly desertion.

However, while he predicts the problem will get worse, and of course it will, he only picks out the Express as the probably casualty of the so called "doomed" titles.

It is easy to see why. The Daily Express (Greenslade separates it from its mid-market rival the Associated owned Daily Mail) was up 0.58% on May to 770,403 in June. But its year-on-year circulation decline is the worst of all the national papers, down 8.79% with a six-month average of 764,575.

It is suffering, but its fate is as much linked to its proprietorship, in Richard Desmond, as much as anything else. It is a strong newspaper brand. Sadly it’s a bad newspaper.

Yes there is much doom, but surely Roy, if one paper more than any other is under threat it is the one you are writing in the Evening Standard under assault from three free sheets, one free sports mag and a men's mag as well.

The Standard's full-rate sales are down to a lowly 198,601 -- this in the world's capital city -- and the Standard's six-month average circulation is down 16.99% year-on-year.

If ever there was a sick man of newspapers, the Standard is your paper. Greenslade makes a projection over five years. I would project those figures.

High end freebie

255762 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:12:39 GMT

Richard Addis, the former Daily Express editor, is launching a free daily newspaper targeting big earners.
According to Media Week, Addis, who was more recently FT Weekend editor, is launching a free daily newspaper at the end of March, targeting high-worth Londoners with arts, leisure and current affairs content.

It sounds like an interesting idea, not so sure about the name: Newsstand? Maybe it’s a grower.

If you were thinking that the Tube and buses were already overrun with copies of City AM, thelondonpaper and London Lite flying around then don’t worry, Addis has given this some thought and has come up with a new distribution idea. Newsstand is going to be delivered every weekday morning to 30,000 homes with upmarket London postcodes.

So if you don't live in SW1 or thereabouts, I wouldn't worry about it because you're probably not going to see it.

In keeping with its compact circulation, editorially the paper is going to be filled with a little commissioned material, including some comment, but will mostly comprise third-party deals for much of its content.

Some of which Addis says will come from websites that have no print arm. Addis sees it providing a new outlet and distribution for these sites. It’s a nice idea.

He's also planning further launches, including some more specialist publications such as a magazine targeting London's large Polish community. Maybe combining it with those upmarket Londoners looking for builders.

Express this

255762 — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 15:01:39 GMT

Some people shouldn't be allowed to own national newspapers. Richard Desmond is one of those.Yesterday's decision to cut 35 jobs – including the entire City desk – is further evidence of this.

Former porn baron Desmond seems to be using the paper as a cash cow and pension fund. Last year, he received £27.2m in payouts and pension funds from the Express Group.

This week, he cuts 35 staff to ensure the "company remains in a sound financial position"!

No seriously, that's what group editorial director Paul Ashford told staff.

"We need to act quickly to ensure that the company remains in a sound financial position and circulations can continue to be supported.

"Very regrettably, this may mean approximately 30 to 35 redundancies across the editorial department plus tighter controls on freelance costs and contribution budgets."

The City desk could probably explain to Desmond that if you take out almost £30m out of the business, things are not going to be so financially sound.

Solution? Sack the entire City desk and replace it with Press Association copy. It's a first for a national newspaper: a title without a City desk.

The Express has been shoddy for years, this is just another nail in its coffin. In the latest ABC figures, the title dropped 1.27% to 818,942, but its six-month average circulation fall was sharper, down by 4.80%.

My guess is that in the not-too-distant future, Desmond will sell the Express after he has taken out of it all that he can.

Earlier in the month, the Daily Express dismissed six trainee journalists just one month into their two-year contracts following "a re-evaluation of the group's internet strategy".