It was greeted with the comments ‘ The end of the world is coming’ , ‘Jesus Wept’ and ‘I might cry’ but today it looks like Mail Online, the net version of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers in Britain is tipped now to become the world’s most popular news site.*

I have to say, much as I hate the Daily Mail sometimes, and hated working on it for quite a period despite its hilarious moments, the camaraderie, and the upstairs bar at the 'Harrow', a certain amount of smugness took over my normal facial expression.

Mail Online has now taken over from the Huffington Post and is ranking as the second most popular news site in the world after the New York Times. Its bosses predict 70 million unique visitors will be reported in the next few days for the month of May, topping the New York Times, which boasted 60 million plus before it went behind a pay-wall.

This would explain why recently I have been getting calls from the Mail Online New York office asking about deaths in Chiang Mai. They have been hitting the US heavily and now about 10 per cent of the group’s advertising revenue comes from the Mail Online.

So is this something to celebrate? Not for many I guess. But it’s a pretty good website even though the website is only divesting itself of some of the baggage you get when you buy the newspaper.

The thumbnail on this story is a letter submitted to and printed by the Daily Mail from a reader who is bored with watching matches from countries like 'Bongo Gongo land'. It was of course reprinted in the Guardian, the Daily Mail's righteous but struggling opponent. Below is also a spoof of the Daily Mail as some people see it.

Americans will of course be decrying ‘yellow journalism’ an attribute they seem to attach to most of the British press.

But if the truth be told most of Fleet Street, including the Guardian, Times and Telegraph, have been following in the Mail’s footsteps on most of the major stories for the last quarter of a century, ever since it battered Britain’s once most famous newspaper, the Daily Express, into oblivion.

In Britain it has always been a journalists paper, even though half the time the journalists hate its politics and are screaming to get off. It seems to have a policy of creating 'bastards' as news editors, and once they get soft they are booted upstairs, or sideways. Its a policy that seems to have worked well.

http://www.andrew-drummond.com/view-story-other.php?sid=405

Popularity doesn't equate to truth or reality.

Easier, to consider the source: the manipulated and numb imbibers.

Not sure of the statistics, but I suspect that The Simpsons is more popular than National Geographic.