Can we talk about the "Mail Plus" subscription for Daily Mail?

[OoohLovelySlippers]

Evening all,

"The DM is a vile, racist, misogynist awful rag and you would have to pay ME to read it." OK, got that out of the way! So anyone wanting to leave a comment like that, I've already done it for you!

For those of us who DO occasionally peruse the most highly-visited news website in the UK and are not ashamed to admit it*, what do we think of this new feature?

*look I'm not saying I agree with everything it says!

£4.99/month nowadays to read the most interesting articles. Not even just the click-baity ones from their high profile columnists but the useful ones about money and the like. And YET there is no reduction in the intrusive adverts and pop up videos. The website version is just unsuable these days because of those. Bearable on the app.

NOTE: I took a trial month subscription out and I was irritated to find there was no option to cancel it online. You had to actually PHONE them do it. Presumably during office hours. Seems a bit tricksy of them!

Do we think this will be a successful venture? As you can tell, I have cancelled after my free trial!

I subscribe to the Times, you have to phone them to cancel, I know this because I took advantage of an offer and had to phone them to cancel my non offer membership. Maybe not them being ‘tricksy’.

You’d have to pay me to read the DM website. Their grifter pet doctors Pemberton and Mosley, their obsession with Harry and Meghan….

No thanks

You can use one of the archive sites to bypass the paywall.

It’ll be scrapped within six months. Bet you.

I haven’t but phoning to cancel things when I’ve signed up online is an absolute hatred of mine, as I can’t ring up, I normally email in or tweet to get it cancelled instead, the times was one of them I had to do this for years ago.

I look at the Mail articles more or less every day. No way would I pay to read them though.

I haven't paid to read these + articles . It is annoying though because a lot of them are the human interest stories which I like

I was a bit appalled by the Mail+ feature, as I think the horrible website jam-packed with awful adverts, video boxes and click bait, and endlessly recycled articles have all got worse. I would love to see fewer articles like snakes swallowing things, or hear about utterly gruesome murders in very far way places, which are flagged up before you can stop yourself seeing the pic or reading the headline (I wouldn’t click on them obvs). And I’d love them to stop publishing massive spoilers for eg The Traitors. But they are (apparently) still not making a great deal of money from the site, despite its popularity. I do subscribe to newspapers and magazines because I believe you should pay for content but this is not the kind of polished, high-quality website with decent journalism across the board.

The Mail of course can be awful, but it does some things excellently, has some terrific and interesting columnists, and is lightning fast in responding to events. The paywall has meant I’m not reading articles of the kind I like to read, and therefore is saving me a bit of time, although it’s annoying cos I’m nosy. I just wonder if the DM audience/readership is going to stump up for something they’ve effectively learned to expect for free when there are so many other things to pay for these days (Netflix, Disney, Now, Apple…). I’m going to watch with interest to see if it continues. The one thing about phoning to cancel is that they often offer you a deal to stay (not open-ended of course) but they can’t get much lower than £4.99…

I read it but wouldn't pay for the extras.

I find it quite entertaining but don't take any of it too seriously.

"The Daily mail is a vile racist misogynistic awful rag"
I'm confused about why you signed up for a free trial to read the vile racist misogynistic rag.
Please enlighten us 😁

I like to read different papers but nearly all of them now use subscriptions and there is no chance that I would ever pay to read an article from the Daily Mail. The only one I signed up for is the Times as it used to have some decent articles.
However, since the change in ownership it has gone downhill.
The interesting articles are nowhere to be seen. Just article after article about how bad public servants are and people who WFH.
The comments section which used to have healthy debates reads like the Daily Mail on steroids. No idea if they are real or AI but it is so awful that I may have to waste my time ringing up to cancel.

Would anyone recommend the Financial Times or The Economist?

It drives me bonkers & I refuse to subscribe its very sneaky of them & to me thats the worst part tbh it's really a rubbish paper but there are a few 'journalists' that are OK usually the older ones even if I don't agree with them about something I like to read about what they think

I love it because it stops me clicking on most of their articles!

It’s perfect- I would get sucked into idle browsing and emerge feeling dirty and ashamed. Now they have found the perfect red line to save me from myself.

I kind of wish Mumnet would make AIBU subscription-only too 😂.

yeah, it has stopped me reading the DM as much now, so there is that😁

There is a much simpler option available on your right mouse button. You do need to be relatively fast though.

I've occasionally read the DM in the past, but now with this Mail+ crap I'm only skimming the headlines and then leaving the site. I cannot imagine it will be a moneyspinner for them.

Rarely go to the DM now, the time I’ve saved been a win win. I liked a few of their journalists eg Jan Moir, Hitchens, but am not paying. Now am on a break from all but the most basic news. Except occasionally look at the Spectator.

🤣🤣🤣

Serves you right 😄

I can access most of the Mail+ articles using PressReader.com.

I have this free as it is supported by my local library.

Have you noticed the stories you have to pay for are for the more hateful reporters; think of the daily ones concerning mixed-race American Meghan Markle, members of the Royal Family who do not give a damn about the flowery nostalgia that was - or even 'exclusives' about the more 'sexy' criminals (especially the ones who have films made about them every couple of years (also in the name of 'nostalgia'). In any case, a friend told me how to get round that 'we want your money' method and still get the stories for free - but you have to be swift at catching the words before they disappear after about two seconds.

I pay the £4.99 to read the Mail Online. Now you mention it, I hardly get any adverts anymore.

newspaper subscriptions are notorious for this.

I would welcome a law that subscriptions must be as easy to cancel as they are to sign up for, and by the same method (eg. you sign up online, you can cancel online)

The Times is the only paper i pay for. I CBA to pay for other subscriptions.

Very much agree. In fact I now check how to cancel before I try anything and if it isn’t as simple as click here then I don’t buy the product/ subscription.
It is as bad as gym memberships.
Trapping your customers is not respectful and in the longterm only drives people away.