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What the papers say.
Jul. 20th, 2011 09:43 amYou'd think, given that amount of coverage of the News International phone hacking story in the press, that it was the biggest story of the year so far. A news monlith toppled and - maybe - the prime minister himself implicated and weakened.
You'd think.
The thing is, if there's one thing the press likes it's the news itself being the news. Being able to write about the internal workings of the press as the press and scrabbling for the moral high ground as they do so. They love it.
However, what the press reports and what people are actually interested in are often two different things, and I got me to wondering how to test what people are reading as opposed to what the papers think they should read. And then it came to me; the newspapers have their websites, and pretty much all of them have a 'most read' function.
The most obvious place to start is the UK's popular newspaper website, The Daily Telegraph, which gets more traffic than any other. At time of writing, the most popular stories on that site are:
1.Only Germany can save EMU as contagion turns systemic
2.Rupert Murdoch hit by custard pie: Wendi Deng's volleyball spike
3.Top Chinese gymnast found begging on the street
4.Return of the Gold Standard as world order unravels
5.Girls urged to strip to support Vladimir Putin as president
There are pages and pages about NI and Murdoch, but only one - the custard pie one - is particularly popular. Telegraph readers are seemingly more interested in the ongoing collapse of the EU and global economic woes, and Vladimir Putin getting some Russki stunnas to whop their norks out.
And why not?
But is this the same across every paper? What of the UK's most read print newspaper, The Sun? Their website leads with Murdoch, same as everyone else, but what are the most popular stories on their website this morning?
1: Behave or else (A story about Chelsea FC)
2: What's that curling up by the hill .. is it a monster? (A dead sea monster is found on a beach)
3: Forgotten something, Rihanna? (Pop star in no undies shocker)
4: Sexy Sacha Parkinson makes a splash (Actress in bikini not shocker)
5: Rupert Murdoch attacked at phone hacking inquiry
So, the only bit of the Murdoch story people are interested in there is the custard pie again. Is a pattern developing? What of the Daily Express?
1: Pair told to pay £110k ...because neighbour took over their land
2: Britain must ban migrants
3: EU plots to control Britain’s military forces
4: Children win slice of bigamy duke’s riches
5: ‘Sick’ Shrien Dewani may be faking to avoid trial, admits expert
6: Dressing down for the Lord’s ladies
Turns out they aren't interested in Murdoch at all.
Tell you what. The Times. The most famous paper in the world. Serious minded, and straight to the point. Surely their readers are mad keen to know about the ongoing furore at News international?
1: As it happened: the phone hacking committees
2: Teenager ‘murdered his parents, then held party’
3: Whistleblower gets £16,000 to keep quiet on ‘falsified’ rail…
4: The gluten-free loaf at £32.27 each that is free to patients…
5: Cheat your way to a bikini body
Oh. Well, at least the custard pie story got them interested.
The BBC, then. The BBC has been mad keen to go after Murdoch on the basis that he's been jolly successful at selling people things they actually want, rather than relying on a business model which involves charging people whether they want something or not. Jeremy Paxman got a bit of a shock last week when BBC cameras went out to interview ordinary members of the public and discovered that the ordinary members of the public weren't overly interested in the story and instead just wanted to get on with their lives.
Still, the BBC thinks this is important and certainly their site is crammed with Murdoch and News International stories, but what are people reading on there this morning?
1: Woman arrested over saline deaths
2: Teen 'killed parents, held party'
3: 50 of your noted Americanisms
4: The shuttle's successors
5: Boat death girl, 11, 'not seen'
Turns out their readers aren't as interested in this story as the BBC seems to think they ought to be.
Right then. The Guardian. Nobody much reads the Guardian, but they've led the crusade against NI, and their readers have been the most shrill in denouncing the evils of Rupert Murdoch. Surely, surely their readers are interested in the story. It beggars belief that the readers of The Guardian could find stories about sharks and football players more interesting than stories about their bete noir?
1: Science: The NFL star and the brain injuries that destroyed him
2. Media: Wendi Deng's Charlie's Angel moment boosts husband's image
3. News: Great white shark jumps from sea into research boat
4. Media: Behind Rupert and James Murdoch's gloss, an intensely serious defence
5. Media: News International 'deliberately' blocked investigation
Oh.
Okay. Apart from the unedifying spectacle of an octagenarian being slapped in the face with a custard pie in the mother of parliaments, it seems that nobody is much interested in this story any more. Only the Guardian - the UK's lowest-circulation national paper - gets more than one story about this into their most read, and even their readers are less interested in it than stories about the NFL(!) and sharks.
There's a moral there, if you look for it.
You'd think.
The thing is, if there's one thing the press likes it's the news itself being the news. Being able to write about the internal workings of the press as the press and scrabbling for the moral high ground as they do so. They love it.
However, what the press reports and what people are actually interested in are often two different things, and I got me to wondering how to test what people are reading as opposed to what the papers think they should read. And then it came to me; the newspapers have their websites, and pretty much all of them have a 'most read' function.
The most obvious place to start is the UK's popular newspaper website, The Daily Telegraph, which gets more traffic than any other. At time of writing, the most popular stories on that site are:
1.Only Germany can save EMU as contagion turns systemic
2.Rupert Murdoch hit by custard pie: Wendi Deng's volleyball spike
3.Top Chinese gymnast found begging on the street
4.Return of the Gold Standard as world order unravels
5.Girls urged to strip to support Vladimir Putin as president
There are pages and pages about NI and Murdoch, but only one - the custard pie one - is particularly popular. Telegraph readers are seemingly more interested in the ongoing collapse of the EU and global economic woes, and Vladimir Putin getting some Russki stunnas to whop their norks out.
And why not?
But is this the same across every paper? What of the UK's most read print newspaper, The Sun? Their website leads with Murdoch, same as everyone else, but what are the most popular stories on their website this morning?
1: Behave or else (A story about Chelsea FC)
2: What's that curling up by the hill .. is it a monster? (A dead sea monster is found on a beach)
3: Forgotten something, Rihanna? (Pop star in no undies shocker)
4: Sexy Sacha Parkinson makes a splash (Actress in bikini not shocker)
5: Rupert Murdoch attacked at phone hacking inquiry
So, the only bit of the Murdoch story people are interested in there is the custard pie again. Is a pattern developing? What of the Daily Express?
1: Pair told to pay £110k ...because neighbour took over their land
2: Britain must ban migrants
3: EU plots to control Britain’s military forces
4: Children win slice of bigamy duke’s riches
5: ‘Sick’ Shrien Dewani may be faking to avoid trial, admits expert
6: Dressing down for the Lord’s ladies
Turns out they aren't interested in Murdoch at all.
Tell you what. The Times. The most famous paper in the world. Serious minded, and straight to the point. Surely their readers are mad keen to know about the ongoing furore at News international?
1: As it happened: the phone hacking committees
2: Teenager ‘murdered his parents, then held party’
3: Whistleblower gets £16,000 to keep quiet on ‘falsified’ rail…
4: The gluten-free loaf at £32.27 each that is free to patients…
5: Cheat your way to a bikini body
Oh. Well, at least the custard pie story got them interested.
The BBC, then. The BBC has been mad keen to go after Murdoch on the basis that he's been jolly successful at selling people things they actually want, rather than relying on a business model which involves charging people whether they want something or not. Jeremy Paxman got a bit of a shock last week when BBC cameras went out to interview ordinary members of the public and discovered that the ordinary members of the public weren't overly interested in the story and instead just wanted to get on with their lives.
Still, the BBC thinks this is important and certainly their site is crammed with Murdoch and News International stories, but what are people reading on there this morning?
1: Woman arrested over saline deaths
2: Teen 'killed parents, held party'
3: 50 of your noted Americanisms
4: The shuttle's successors
5: Boat death girl, 11, 'not seen'
Turns out their readers aren't as interested in this story as the BBC seems to think they ought to be.
Right then. The Guardian. Nobody much reads the Guardian, but they've led the crusade against NI, and their readers have been the most shrill in denouncing the evils of Rupert Murdoch. Surely, surely their readers are interested in the story. It beggars belief that the readers of The Guardian could find stories about sharks and football players more interesting than stories about their bete noir?
1: Science: The NFL star and the brain injuries that destroyed him
2. Media: Wendi Deng's Charlie's Angel moment boosts husband's image
3. News: Great white shark jumps from sea into research boat
4. Media: Behind Rupert and James Murdoch's gloss, an intensely serious defence
5. Media: News International 'deliberately' blocked investigation
Oh.
Okay. Apart from the unedifying spectacle of an octagenarian being slapped in the face with a custard pie in the mother of parliaments, it seems that nobody is much interested in this story any more. Only the Guardian - the UK's lowest-circulation national paper - gets more than one story about this into their most read, and even their readers are less interested in it than stories about the NFL(!) and sharks.
There's a moral there, if you look for it.
