The latest issue of The New Yorker includes a comprehensive article introducing its readership to the publishing behemoth that is the Daily Mail.
The newspaper may be familiar to any semi-literate Briton, but the stats in the story are still staggering: in January, the Mails online traffic overtook the New York Times to make Mail Online the most visited newspaper site in the world. 52 million unique visitors click on the page per month. In print, the paper reaches 4.5m readers every day.
And part of that appeal comes from the cant-look-away nature of the titles coverage. The paper specialises in turning any celebritys daily routine into fodder for judgy/screamy stories about cellulite, weight gain, etc.
Kate Moss, who as Cocaine Kate has found herself as one of the papers perennial subjects, regularly comes under editorial fire for daring to step out of the house, wear hot pants or go to the pub. When the Mail ran a story about Moss displaying very obvious crows feet and lines beneath her eyes as well as blemished skin from years of smoking and drinking, a journalist asked the model why she thought the Mail was so interested in her aging. Mosss response:
I dont know. Cause its the Daily Mail? They just get on everyones tits, dont they?
Somehow, this makes us like her even more...