I write for the Daily Mail. AMA.

[Mailista]

Specifically, Femail. AMA.

[SinkGirl]

p2 “it was my dream job too”
p4 “But when you find yourself in a familial and financial position you never wanted to be in or imagined you would be in, you have do whatever you can to make ends meet.“

Uh huh.

I used to work as a freelance too, alongside my full-time job in magazine production. I would never have written for the Mail.

For people asking about errors, there used to be plenty of sub-editors. It was my first magazine job, and it was fantastic. As circulation dropped, anyone who wasn’t producing something visible was cut. I see so much text now that clearly hasn’t been checked by anyone (editors certainly can’t be arsed, in my experience). We also used to have strict style guides - amongst other things, these guides banned a long list of clichés, but I suspect the Mail has a different attitude towards them!

[EurusHolmes]

I'm a journalist (I have never worked for the Mail, but have a friend who does. She's left-wing and lovely, perhaps surprisingly.)

RE the 'nicking Mumsnet threads' issue:-

I don't understand why people are surprised that journalists lift stories from Mumsnet. If a Mumsnet thread has a lot of engagement, then it is surely going to get a lot of views elsewhere, too.

I've never lifted a thread myself, but I completely understand why journalists do it.

It's not 'lazy' journalism either . I used to work in online news journalism, and we had a ridiculous quota (7) for the amount of stories we needed to publish in a day. Try finding that much content in an 8 hour shift! Maybe people should blame the management at the papers for over-stretching reporters rather than pointing the finger at "nasty journos", who get a lot of flack already.

[MargaretDribble]

Downhere do they really do that? A friend of ours has been offered a DM exclusive, but another red top is also interested. Does that mean that she risks being dropped?

[Truckingonandon]

Do you consider yourself to be a feminist?

Not a question but I can't help but point out that for someone so proud of their grammar, your posts are littered with grammatical errors.

[Noloudnoises]

And the online department is usually people in their twenties, scouring the internet and local news sites for find stories to publish that might be a talking point, or newsworthy. The pace they do that at is huge which is why there is often loads of mistakes. The editors need to keep up.
Anyway, they're the ones nicking the mumsnet threads!

[Noloudnoises]

What people don't understand is that femail aren't the ones nicking the threads, it's the news department or online department. Most stories fall under the femail side bar of shame online. However those that write for femail like the OP and @SunnyInGrimsby are feature writers, commissioned to do a 1000 word spread that appears in the paper first rather than just online. Femail does 'news led' features. If something online gets a lot of attention it will most likely make the paper edition that day/night. Then if it's got a good peg or a talking point, then femail will flesh it out and get a feature commissioned on it, most likely with case studies or more of a polemic option piece, a couple of days later. Then GMTV, loose women, this morning etc usually ring and ask to speak to the case study to get them on the show. So femail is often driving the news from one piece. That one piece could originally have come from a seed of a thread on mumsnet.

But to the average reader that distinction doesn't matter. But to get at the OP and @SunnyInGrimsby for stealing threads are entirely the wrong targets.

[PerryMasonsFriend]

*including someone's age narrows the field of identifiable people who could be mistaken for that person with the same name - as does where they come from - particularly in court reports where there is no photograph of the defendant and the allegations are criminal.

[PerryMasonsFriend]

Why do articles about women always mention their age?

Absolutely no good reason.

This isn't correct - that there is no good reason. The origin is legal reasons and it doesn't just apply to women but to men as well.

It is a hangover from old school journalistic practice to identify the person you are talking about as accurately as possible. In the modern world where there are so many photographs of people it matters far less.

In defamation terms if you write an article saying John Smith is a murderer - it means "a man called John Smith is a murderer". Anyone called John Smith can sue on the basis that it means him. This actually happened in the case of a man called Artemus Jones

mavrkydefamationcaselaw.blogspot.com/2007/01/hulton-co-v-jones.html

This is why you will see articles saying "John Smith aged 25 of Lower Misummer". It is to avoid the accidental defamation issue.

Including someone's age narrows the

In many cases (celeb gossip about what someone is wearing together with a picture of them) including age is absolutely superfluous. In other cases, it is essential and legally advised.

Good practice was always to include age to avoid any problems but as I said now it matters far less.

It's wrong to say age is always included for no reason because it really isn't.

[Cattenberg]

Do you think it's OK that the DM publishes details of ISIS atrocities in sickening detail, often complete with photos? You can often see this on the home page without even clicking on the article. This publicity is exactly what ISIS wants, so you're helping their cause. I asked the DM not to publish these details, but of course I was wasting my time.

Also, the "most popular videos" sidebar on the homepage is horrible and features videos of animal torture and people being attacked. I never watch these videos, but do you really think it's OK to publish them? It reflects something really rotten in the paper and its readers.

[HmmGrey]

Hope you’re not the writer that uses taglines like ‘she’s got some front’ to describe every busty woman that’s pictured wearing a low cut dress. Or the tagline ‘burgeoning belly’ for every pregnant woman ever.

Anyway... did you always want to be a journalist?

[SunnyInGrimsby]

No, I'm not Samantha Brick,lol, she writes and does interviews for the Mail all the time.

[AlwaysFuckingTired]

@SunnyInGrimsby Samantha Brick!

[SunnyInGrimsby]

@HeAteAFatball, ha ha, no I'm not Liz Jones. As I mentioned in my post, I haven't written for the paper for well over a year - she has 2 weekly column in the MoS and more besides.

[Nightwatch999]

Daily Mail 😡 a truly despicable newspaper

[HeAteAFatball]

SunnyinGrimsby Hi Liz! [waves]

[HeAteAFatball]

OP, admit it, you're Shona Sibary, aren't you?

I admit that even though I hate the benefits bashing tone and hyped up gossip in DM, I do like buying it on a Thursday just so I can read Femail.

[ohellio]

@SunnyInGrimsby Fucking brilliant post.

[Cel982]

OP, are you genuinely unaware that the DM regularly lifts threads from Mumsnet in their entirety and republishes them? There's no subterfuge about it, they show screenshots of the threads. Your response to the question about it here suggests you're not very au fait with what the DM actually publishes...

[SunnyInGrimsby]

I’ve written for Femail on and off for 25 years and used to enjoy it very much. I last wrote for them a few years ago but instead of writing the article myself, I was talked into having it ghosted with disastrous consequences – it was still written in the first person but I appeared vain and inglorious in the final copy and was harassed on social media for months afterwards.

A glamorous photo of me in my prime’ was trailed on the front page (taken about 20 years ago) and as a consequence, I have been fending off lustful Nigerians on FB ever since. I was the most hated woman in middle England for 24 hours and it was the most mortifying thing that has ever happened to me. Yes, inexcusable but I could and should have been much firmer over copy approval. <br /> <br /> However, while people are scathing of those who write for the Mail, I should explain that writers write for an audience and while we would all love to write for bien pensant publications, the rates have stayed about the same since I started (and most of the time actually gone down) and the Mail is about the only publication which actually still pays a decent rate. <br /> <br /> Yes, there is lots of stuff to dislike (having to pose for pictures in 50's style knee length outfits and having copy re-written in a Stepford wife on Prozac style and other nonsenses) but I admire campaigns such as the one raising awareness about plastic waste and there are often stories about animal welfare issues that other papers won't touch. <br /> <br /> I’ve written for most of the papers and magazines in my time and generally found my editors at the Mail to be extremely pleasant and considerate. I had a column on the Indy for a few years but the editors could be pretty unpleasant and sacked people via email so just because a newspaper is left of centre it really doesn’t mean they behave any better than the Mail. <br /> <br /> I recently wrote an article that appeared in the Spectator but they didn’t bother to pay, despite me submitting several invoices. Their rates have been £250 per article for as long as I can remember so I have no idea how anybody can earn a living as a freelance unless they have another source of income. <br /> <br /> I wrote for Woman and Home recently and they took 18 months to settle my invoice. They insisted on seeing a copy of my passport and were a red tape nightmare. I told them that it took longer to invoice them than it did to actually write the article!<br /> <br /> I know it is fashionable to sneer at the Mail but at least people read the paper and at least they bother to pay people, unlike so many other publications these days. As a writer you just have to be extremely careful and sup with a long spoon’. Or give up trying to write for anyone and go on the dole.

For virtue-signalling posters holding the OP entirely responsible for the `sidebar of shame’ and other horrors please get over yourselves.

In order to be so sanctimonious, you obviously never shop at Tesco’s (please research how they treat farmers) or use Amazon (who mistreat their workers and avoid paying their share of tax) or use Google (ditto the tax), ever enriched Philip Green by shopping at one of his stores or worked for a company that is not whiter than white. Etc.

[AlexanderHamilton]

How does Baz Bamigboye get on with everyone else as his opinions & values seem so at odds with the rest of the paper’s?

[subspace]

Do you consider that the papers content is problematic in any way?

[Dontbuymesocks]

How do I get to be a proofreader for the Mail? There are so many errors and it drives me mad.

[redshoeblueshoe]

Can you steal the Ocado thread please ?

[TheBiologicalWoman]

Can you please visit FWR and persuade the powers that be to feature more articles on the GRA and women's rights?

[CutesyUserName]

I'm a proofreader (and copy/content writer) and cringe at some of the errors I come across in the DM. How do I apply for the job :)