What is the world coming to, I’m writing a blog about the Daily Mail website. Love it or hate it, the Daily Mail website is an internet publishing sensation fuelled by celebrity tittle-tattle and polarised opinions, sparking controversy across the net. Latest figures suggest that it’s reaching into the living rooms of well over half the UK online population and is now the world’s second-most popular online newspaper.
According to the most recent data from ABC, released at the end of August, readership has grown 65% year-on-year and in July the site reached 73 million global unique browsers. In the UK alone, ABC believes that Mail Online reached 24.7 million unique browsers–over half of the online population.
Other data from web analytics firm comScore published earlier in the month said it was the second-most visited website after the New York Times.
As British bands struggle to crack the US market, our very own Daily Mail has managed to do it by incorporating a heady mix of Hollywood gossip in its highly clickable right-hand column. As someone described it to me today, “It’s a guilty pleasure”.
The Mail Online’s steady rise into the online hall of fame comes at a time when there’s growing debate about web anonymity – the ability for people to post anonymous comments through a fake name or spoof persona – their dog, for example. A number of senior web businesspeople in California have raised questions about people’s ability to hide behind synonyms online, saying that author disclosure would make the internet “better”. But does it really matter given that people have been hiding behind different names for centuries!
Along with the Mail’s dichotomous toxic mix of moral outrage, paranoia, sharp writing and dimply thighs are the comment boards aka “online flashpoint central”, a space where the masses can argue, get angry and occasionally show a little love (although we could do with a little more of that).
While it’s easy to get dismayed about trolls on comment boards, the Mail’s comment design is pretty effective as it categorises the comments and people can vote to rate content, thereby silencing the boring or insane. Other newspaper websites do not all achieve this so effectively, whereas other sites have followed this design.
To reflect its growing global influence, the likes of JohnnyEnglander and couldn’tcareless, England have been increasingly joined by Kitty from Omaha and LeeAnn from Palo Alto. It’s not surprising it’s become so popular, it’s an engaging and fascinating clash of worlds and different views.
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