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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.