SubScribe14
  • SubScribe commentary
  • The schedule
    • Celebrities >
      • Robin Williams and suicide reporting
      • George Clooney v Daily Mail, round 3
      • Are we playing fair with celebrities?
      • L'Wren Scott's death and Mick Jagger's grief
      • Jill Dando
      • Alain de Botton and Philip Seymour Hoffman
      • Wendi Deng and Rebekah Wade love letters
      • Elizabeth Hurley
      • Gwyneth Paltrow
      • William Roache
    • Crime >
      • The release of Harry Roberts
      • Alan Henning and Alice Gross
      • Dave Lee Travis and Operation Yewtree
      • Rotherham child sex exploitation
      • Operation Tuleta
      • Rolf Harris and Andy Coulson sentencing
      • Maxine Carr's wedding
      • Ann Maguire stabbing
      • Stephen Lawrence and police corruption: time to sit up and take notice
      • The Mirror and Jill Dando
      • William Roache acquitted
      • Rape cases never have a happy ending
      • Lee Rigby and the law of contempt
      • Michael Le Vell: don't shoot the messenger
      • Madeleine McCann: missing an opportunity
      • Maria the 'Greek Madeleine'
    • Foreign Affairs >
      • David Haines and Isis propaganda
      • The murder of Steven Sotloff
      • James Foley murdered
      • Nigeria's abducted girls and massacre
      • Kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls
      • Al Jazeera on trial: why should we care about journalists?
      • Al Jazeera on trial: the final session
      • Al Jazeera on trial: Abdullah Elshamy
      • Al Jazeera on trial: Peter Greste
      • Al Jazeera on trial: the court hearings
      • Peter Greste sent back to jail as Al-Jazeera journalists' trial is adjourned
      • Al-Jazeera journalists refused bail in Egypt
      • Frontline reporting
      • Putin, the Man of Destiny, and dreams of a Eurasian empire
      • Putin wants more than Crimea, he wants half of Ukraine
      • Ukraine revolution and the threat to the West
      • Obama's selfie
      • Typhoon Haiyan
    • Gender Issues >
      • It takes all sorts to make a family
      • This is what a flawed feminist campaign looks like
      • A level results day: bring on the token boys
      • Kellie Maloney faces the world
      • Cheerleading
      • Pregnant soldiers
      • Women in trouble for getting ahead
      • Doris Lessing, Helen Mirren and silly sexist tokenism
      • Bank notes campaign
    • Health and Beauty >
      • Ebola
      • Ashya King and the force of authority
      • Robin Williams and suicide reporting
      • Sun boobs with page 3 breast cancer campaign
      • Stephen's story: did the Press help his cause or take over his life?
      • Anorexia, bulimia and high-achieving students
      • Colchester cancer scandal
      • New year diets
      • Food for thought: will red meat kill you?
    • Obituary >
      • Robin Williams and suicide reporting
      • Chapman Pincher
      • Rik Mayall and the trouble with death
      • Tony Benn: why we shouldn't speak ill of the dead
      • Thatcher and Crow: speaking ill of the dead
      • Bob Crow wins last media battle
      • Fred Sanger
      • Nelson Mandela
      • Doris Lessing
    • Politics >
      • Poppymania
      • Cameron's tax cut promise
      • Brooks Newmark sting
      • Scottish referendum >
        • Scottish referendum: the final editions
        • Scottish referendum miscellany
        • The Queen speaks
      • Politicians need their holidays too
      • Cameron's reshuffle: bring on the women
      • Food banks
      • The European elections audit >
        • Election audit: the last wordle
        • Election audit: Daily Mail
        • Election audit: The Times
        • Election audit: Daily Express
        • Election audit: Daily Mirror
        • Election audit: The Independent
        • Election audit: Guardian
        • Election audit: Daily Telegraph
        • Election audit: The Sun
      • Maria Miller
      • The blue-rinse bingo Budget
      • Harman, Hewitt and the paedophiles
      • Hewitt apologises and the Sun picks up the cudgels
      • Mail v Labour trio, day 6: Harman capitulates and the bully wins
      • David Miranda detention matters to us all
      • Education >
        • A level results day: bring on the token boys
      • Immigration >
        • A year of xenophobia
        • The Express and immigration
      • The Royal Family >
        • Prince Charles and the floods
        • Prince George
      • Sport >
        • Cheerleading
        • Kelly Gallagher beats the world
        • Why is football more important than all the news?
        • Jenny Jones struggles against Kate and ManU
      • The weather >
        • Smog
  • Journalists in court
  • Phone hacking
  • The Brooks-Coulson trial
    • Hacking trial: sentences
    • Hacking trial: commentary
    • Hacking trial: background
    • Hacking trial: reportage and comment
    • Hacking trial: press coverage
    • Hacking trial: verdict and reaction
    • Hacking trial: sentencing hearing
    • Hacking trial: mitigation
    • Hacking trial: Rebekah speaks
    • Hacking trial: mainstream Press
    • Hacking trial: periodicals
    • Hacking trial: Guardian
    • Hacking trial: Independent
    • Hacking trial: The Times
    • Hacking trial: Daily Telegraph
    • Hacking trial: The whitetops
    • Hacking trial: The redtops
    • Hacking trial: evidence
  • Nationals
    • Express
    • Guardian
    • Independent
    • The i
    • Mail
    • Mirror
    • Daily Star
    • Sun
    • Telegraph
    • Times
  • OpEd
    • OpEd: UK politics 24-12-14
    • OpEd: 23-12-14 Christmas
    • OpEd: 22-12-14 UK politics
    • OpEd: 19-12-14 North Korea
    • OpEd: 18-12-14 British politics
    • OpEd: 17-12-14 UK politics
    • OpEd: 16-12-14 UK politics
    • OpEd: CIA torture 15-12-14
    • OpEd: UK politics 12-12-14
    • OpEd: CIA torture 11-12-14
    • OpEd: CIA torture 10-12-14
    • OpEd: British politics 09-12-14
    • OpEd: British politics 08-12-14
    • OpEd: Autumn Statement 05-12-14
    • OpEd: Autumn Statement 04-12-14
    • OpEd: Autumn Statement 03-12-14
    • OpEd: Gordon Brown 02-12-14
    • OpEd: Black Friday 01-12-14
    • OpEd: Scottish finance 28-11-14
    • OpEd: European politics 27-11-14
    • OpEd: David Mellor 26-11-14
    • OpEd: Lewis Hamilton 25-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 24-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 21-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 20-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 19-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 18-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 17-11-14
    • OpEd: Labour 14-11-14
    • OpEd: forex scandal 13-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 12-11-14
    • OpEd: the Labour Party 11-11-14
    • OpEd: Ed Miliband 10-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 07-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 06-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 05-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 04-11-14
    • OpEd: space tourism 03-11-14
    • OpEd: British politics 31-10-14
    • OpEd: immigration 30-10-14
    • OpEd: immigration 29-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 28-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 27-10-14
    • OpEd: NHS 24-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 23-10-14
    • OpEd: Ukip 22-10-14
    • OpEd: Britain and EU 21-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 20-10-14
    • OpEd: Lord Freud 17-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 16-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 15-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 14-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 13-10-14
    • OpEd: Isis and UK politics 10-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 09-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 08-09-14
    • OpEd: LibDem conference 07-10-14
    • OpEd: British politics 06-10-14
    • OpEd: party conferences 03-10-14
    • OpEd: Cameron's speech 02-10-14
    • OpEd: Conservative conference 01-10-14
    • OpEd: Conservative conference 30-09-14
    • OpEd: Conservative conference 29-09-14
    • OpEd: War on Isis 26-09-14
    • OpEd: Labour conference 25-09-14
    • OpEd: Miliband's speech 24-09-14
    • OpEd: Labour conference 23-09-14
    • OpEd: Referendum fallout 22-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 19-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 18-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 17-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 16-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 15-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 12-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 11-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 10-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 09-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 08-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish referendum 05-09-14
    • OpEd: Nato and Isis threat 04-09-14
    • OpEd: Scottish independence 03-09-14
    • OpEd: Nude photographs 02-09-14
    • OpEd: British politics 01-09-14
    • OpEd: Ukip defection 29-08-14
    • OpEd: Rotherham sex abuse 28-08-14
    • OpEd: Islamic militants 27-08-14
    • OpEd: Middle East 26-08-14
    • OpEd: James Foley 22-08-14
    • OpEd: James Foley 21-08-14
    • OpEd: British politics 20-08-14
    • OpEd: Iraq 19-08-14
    • OpEd: Iraq 18-08-14
    • OpEd: A levels 15-08-14
    • OpEd: Iraq 14-08-14
    • OpEd: Robin Williams 13-08-14
    • OpEdL Iraq 12-08-14
    • OpEd: Iraq 11-08-14
    • OpEd: Boris Johnson 08-08-14
    • OpEd: Boris Johnson 07-08-14
    • OpEd: Warsi resignation 06-08-14
    • OpEd: First World War centenary 05-08-14
    • OpEd: Gaza 04-08-14
    • OpEd: British politics 01-08-14
    • OpEd: Gaza 31-07-14
    • OpEd: British politics 30-07-14
    • OpEd: British politics 29-07-14
    • OpEd: Gaza 28-07-14
    • OpEd: Gaza 25-07-14
    • OpEd: EU and Russia 24-07-14
    • OpEd: Flight MH17 23-07-14
    • OpEd: Flight MH17 22-07-14
    • OpEd: Flight MH17 21-07-14
    • oped: Gaza 18-07-14
    • OpEd: Cameron's reshuffle 17-07-14
    • OpEd: Cameron's reshuffle 16-07-14
    • OpEd: Cameron's reshuffle 15-07-14
    • OpEd: British politics 14-07-2014
    • OpEd: public sector strikes 11-07-14
    • OpEd: public sector strikes 10-07-14
    • OpEd: sex abuse 09-07-14
    • OpEd Sex abuse 08-07-14
    • OpEd: Westminster child abuse 07-07-2014
    • OpEd: Middle East 04-07-14
    • OpEd: Ed Miliband 03-07-14
    • OpEd British politics: 02-07-14
    • OpEd: edeucation 01-07-14
    • OpEd: Britain and Europe 30-06-14
    • OpEd: Britain and Europe 27-06-14
    • OpEd: Luis Suárez 26-06-14
    • OpEd: Iraq 25-06-14
    • OpEd: British politics 24-06-14
    • OpEd: Iraq 23-06-14
    • OpEd: Iraq 20-06-14
    • OpEd: British politics, 19-06-14
    • OpEd: British politics, 18-06-2014
    • OpEd: Iraq 17-06-14
    • OpEd: Tony Blair 16-06-14
    • OpEd: Iraq 13-06-14
    • OpEd: Oxfam, baby buggies, World Cup 12-06-14
    • OpEd: education and British values 11-06-14
    • OpEd: extremist education 10-06-14
    • OpEd: May v Gove 09-06-14
  • The columnists
  • Regionals
    • Regional Press Awards 2013
    • Local newspaper week
    • Local papers matter
    • Reading Chronicle and football hooliganism
    • Time for change
    • Monty's vision
    • The Full Monty: the Local World vision put into practice
    • The Pirates of Parkham
    • Colchester cancer scandal
  • Backnumbers
    • Weekend papers Dec 27-28
    • Front pages Dec 22-26, 2014
    • Weekend papers Dec 20-21
    • Front pages Dec 15-19
    • Weekend front pages Dec 13-14
    • Front pages Dec 8-12
    • Weekend papers Dec 6-7
    • Front pages Dec 1-5
    • Weekend papers Nov 29-30
    • Front pages Nov 24-28
    • Weekend papers Nov 22-23
    • Front pages Nov 17-21
    • Weekend papers Nov 15-16
    • Front pages Nov 10-14
    • Weekend papers Nov 8-9
    • Front pages Nov 3-7
    • Weekend papers Nov 1-2
    • Front pages Oct 27-31
    • Weekend papers Oct 25-26, 2014
    • Front pages Oct 20-24
    • Weekend papers Oct 18-19, 2014
    • Front pages Oct 12-17
    • Front pages Oct 5-11
    • Front pages Sept 28-Oct 4
    • front pages Sept 21-27
    • Front pages Sept 14-20
    • front pages Sept 7-13 2014
    • front pages Aug 31-Sep 6
    • Front pages Aug 24-30, 2014
    • Front pages August 17-23, 2014
    • Front pages, Aug 10-16, 2014
    • Front pages, Aug 3-9, 2014
    • Front pages July 27-August2, 2014
    • Front pages July 20-26, 2014
    • front pages July 13-19, 2014
    • Front pages: July 6-12, 2014
    • Front pages June 29-July 5, 2014
    • Front pages June 22-28, 2014
    • Front pages June 15-21
    • Front pages June 8-14, 2014
    • Front pages June 1-7, 2014
    • Nationals May 25-31
    • Front pages May 18-24 >
      • Press review: 24-05-14
      • Press review: 21-05-14
      • Press review: 20-05-14
    • Front pages May 11-17 >
      • Press review 15-05-14
      • Press review 14-05-14
      • Press review 13-05-14
      • Press review 12-05-14
    • front pages May 4-10, 2014 >
      • The review 09-05-14
      • The review 08-05-2014
      • The review 07-05-14
    • Front pages April 27-May 3 2014
    • Front pages April 20-26, 2014
    • Front pages April 13-19
    • Front pages April 6-12, 2014
    • The front pages March 30-April 5
    • The front pages March 23-29, 2014
    • front pages march 16-22
    • front pages March 9-15, 2014
    • front pages March 2-8, 2014
    • front pages Feb 23-Mar 1 2014
    • front pages Feb 16-22, 2014
    • The front pages Feb 9-15 2014
    • The front pages Feb 3-8, 2014
    • The front pages January 2014
  • You have to laugh
  • Blog archive
  • About SubScribe
  • Join the SubScribers
  • Contact us
  • Cookie policy


Prince George's christening: Independent, Mail
and Telegraph take royal coverage to extremes

Telegraph christening
independent christening
Friday 25 October, 2013

The Royal Family cost the taxpayer £33.3m last year. Branding experts say they brought in more than £20bn.

How you regard those figures and which you choose to highlight will depend on your view of the monarchy, a subject on which few of us are ambivalent.
And so it was this morning with newspaper coverage of the christening of Prince George. The Independent nailed its republican colours to the masthead by recording the occasion as the bottom nib on its last home news page. In so doing, it raised a few laughs and got a lot of free publicity. So in spite of themselves, even sceptics benefit from the Royal Family.
Daily Mail puff
The Daily Mail went to the other extreme with a 15-page souvenir extravaganza that actually ran to 16 if you counted Bel Mooney's oped on how everyone loves a christening.
The Telegraph dropped the puff - something papers generally do only in the presence of monumental stories such as 9/11 or the death of a Prime Minister - so it could run a full-page picture of the sainted Catherine and her sprog. It was not sufficiently committed, however, to forgo the revenue afforded by the 10x7 ad at the foot of the page.
Who was right? republican or royalist, I'd say that all three were all wrong. They all misjudged the occasion and were all too tricksy for their own good.

Mail inside
For a start, this was a private event. There were only 22 guests at the Chapel Royal and there was no room for outsiders such as newspaper reporters or photographers. Neither the folk on the pavement in their Union Flag suits nor the true blue Press grasped this.

The Mail had cleared buckets of space, but there was little to report and few people to see, so it had to resort to twin full-page pictures on 2 and 3 of the Duke and Duchess holding their baby - the full OK Hello monty.
It struggled to keep this going all the way to the comment section, which meant that the first news story - the Merkel phone-tapping claims - did not appear until page 21.
Telegraph christening
Journalists at the Telegraph, whose coverage ran straight through to page 5 before starting real news with Cameron and the green tax on 6,  must have envied the Mail its acres of newsprint. The accountants will have been delighted, however, that every news page was jam-packed with ads. Were those guys in suits at the bottom of page 3 christening guests or blokes trying to sell designer clothing? Nothing could breathe. The picture choice was poor, the prose uninspired.
The paper had sent the chief reporter Gordon Rayner. The chief reporter, for heaven's sake? Chief reporters are in the business of covering  - and, even better, uncovering - hard news stories; the ones that are difficult to pin down, the ones where the leading players don't want to be questioned about their darkest secrets.

The leading players yesterday didn't want to be questioned about their darkest secrets, nor even about their lightest moments - and this wasn't the day to ask them. Every piece of information published this morning, apart from the chats with the faithful on the street, will have been available in some handout or press release. In essence there was nothing to say.

And when there is nothing to say, papers need to bring out their finest voices (often to be found in the features or sports departments) to say nothing in 1,500 words of panache, elegance and wit.
There were ten areas to be covered yesterday:
  •  did the baby cry?
  •  the choice of godparents
  •  the guest list
  •  what the Duke and Duchess said
  •  what the baby wore
  •  what everyone else wore
  •  what the Archbishop said
  •  the order of service and who read the lessons
  •  random details such as the font, the water, the cake, the chapel
  •  what the crowd thought

All of that could satisfactorily be packed into a 500-word story with a picture - as the Guardian proved with its page 3. But this was the christening of 'our future king' and statements needed to be made, not in words, but in space.
Guardian christening
Just before  the Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 a pithy memo was circulated at The Times:

"Please do not refer to Lady Diana Spencer as the future Queen of England"

In those days memos came in paper form and were pinned to notice boards in between the holiday homes for rent and announcements from on high about the chessboard shuffling of specialists. It remained, yellowed and curling, on the one near the loos and the sandwich machines until the paper did its moonlight flit to Wapping five years later.

It was a wise instruction. Diana was not destined to become our Queen. Prince George may be fourth in line to the throne, but it is not a given that he will get there. Most of us would not wish him, his father or even his grandfather ill, but life has a habit of not conforming to plan. When George's great-grandmother was christened, nobody expected her to become Queen. When her father was christened, nobody thought he would become King.


English history is paved with stories of accidental monarchs. It's asking a lot to believe that by the turn of the next century  the succession will have moved smoothly from Elizabeth II via Charles and William to George VII. Yet almost every paper stuck with the fairytale.

Christening fronts
mirror christening
They also found it difficult to avoid the mush trap. There were lots of Gorgeous Georges - but isn't he the MP for Bradford West? And there were lots of pictures of a baby with three hands, one of them ten times the size of the other two. This alien child featured on the front of the Times, Sun, Mail and Express and inside the Guardian.

The Telegraph and Mirror wisely chose a picture of mother and baby - while the Times kept a foot in both camps by using Kate on one of its stylish wraparounds. 
Since the success of the Olympic innovation, the paper has produced wraparounds at the drop of a hat. 
On days such as today it's quite a good move: it preserves the sanctity of the 'real' news front while looking attractive enough on the newsstands to pick up a few extra casual sales.

The other papers that opted for the three-handed boy in a dress presumably did so on the premise that readers would want to see the clearest picture possible of the young prince.

Looking at other people's baby pictures is a duty of friendship. Looking at this baby's picture in the hope of finding some likeness to Diana, Victoria or Genghis Khan goes beyond duty and into the realms of masochism. He's a fine enough chap, but the photograph tells me nothing other than that he's a three-month-old baby.

times wraparound
We can hope for something more meaningful tomorrow morning when we see the official portrait of the Queen and her three direct descendants.

Friday update: the Sun and the Telegraph got the point of the four generations photograph, the Times, Mail, Express and Mirror all kept the oldsters out and ran with Wills, Kate and George. An odd choice - and goodness knows why the Times thought its readers needed two duchesses on its front.
mail christening inside
And what about the words? The Guardian's Caroline Davies did a neat job and sustained her theme of first, second, third and finally fourth estate nicely. Thankfully, the space ran out before Benedict Cumberbatch could put in an appearance.

The tabs were much of a muchness, with a couple of spreads each, apart from the i, which restricted itself to a picture and extended caption -  probably not enough for a readership that includes a lot of young and elderly readers who buy it because of the price. Many in these groups are quite avid royalists.
times inside
The Times, with a class team of Valentine Low, Lucy Bannerman and Patrick Kidd, was way out ahead in the text stakes - although the fashion editor Laura Craik stumbled in saying that the christening robe was designed by Angela Kelly. It was a replica of one that had been used for generations, so there wasn't much designing to be done.The paper also got the balance right with a front-page picture, a proper news splash and four ad-constrained pages from 6-10. Headline writing was sharp.
Star puff
There were surprises, too, with the Express outperforming the Mail on almost every measure and the Mirror giving the event more space and with more style than the royalist Sun.
The Star, which returned to the killer spiders for its splash,  meanwhile came up with a puff that would stop any casual reader in their tracks:  'Jordan wets the baby's head'.
As the asterisk pointed out, the Jordan in question was the river, not the model.
Nice one.


Picture
kate wine

The exclusive baby that isn't 

She's drinking wine, she's bumping around on a jet boat, so the Duchess of Cambridge must clearly be pregnant again - or not. Eight words from Prince William was enough to set Fleet Street in a frenzied game of "build 'em up, knock 'em down". 
They all knew it was nonsense from the start
flotilla

Jubilee sold down the river

 What gives with the BBC?
 It clearly knew that the Thames pageant was important to its viewers: it  devoted four and a half hours of unbroken coverage to it. 
The website described it as one of the biggest events of the year, the first time in 350 years that such a flotilla had been seen on the Thames. Everyone knows we are a maritime nation. 
The event, as we were told several times, had been three years in the planning. 
How did the Beeb manage to make such a mess of it?
Read Gameoldgirl on the disastrous coverage of the rain-soaked Jubilee pageant here
charles floods

Prince Charles and the floods

While the politicians were dithering and the farmers in the Somerset Levels were despairing, the Prince of Wales forced the issue with a businesslike visit and an attack on the Government thinly veiled in a 'Francis Urquhart' quote 
Prince gets down to business and Cameron falls into line
mail inside. prince andrew

Mail recycles old news again

Could Prince Andrew's links with a disgraced financier return to haunt him, the Mail asks. Well it's the paper digging up the corpse here with a story about whether the prince knew about his former friend's sexual activities.
Jon Swaine of the Telegraph asked the same questions three years ago - and came up with the same answers.
Digging up the past
times front

Times makes the running

Kate in 4" wedges and virginal white lace dress attempts a Pamela Anderson Baywatch run on Manly beach in Sydney. It's not quite the same look, but it was enough to captivate all the editors. Picture blog
Fergie Mail

The dieting duchess

The Duchess of York emerges from a New York restaurant looking like a 54-year-old woman leaving a restaurant. Cue the Mail to inspect her wrinkles and pronounce that she has overdone the dieting. Next day there's a whole spread on her changing image. The pictures are engaging, the words bitchy. Is this fair?
Andrew Clooney

Clooney page is a triumph

When the Mail gets it right, it absolutely sings. Prince Andrew has been seeing a woman previously linked to George Clooney. The Mail wonders if they have anything else in common.  Clare Cisotti comes up trumps


comments powered by Disqus

Please sign up here for SubScribe updates

I'd like to become a SubScriber

* indicates required

Quick links

Picture
Main sections:
The industry
Press freedom
Press regulation
The schedule
Phone hacking
News judgment
Regionals
Picture
About SubScribe
Send an email
Blogs:
Pictures and spreads
Editor's blog
Press Box
Style Counsel
You have to laugh
OpEd
Front page reviews
Picture
The old blog