Steven Baxter

Patrolling the murkier waters of the mainstream media

Is it the end of the bad old days for the Daily Express and Daily Star?

With increasing cross-promotion within his group, Richard Desmond can no longer pander solely to Little Englanders.

By Steven Baxter Published 01 March 2011 12:16

Richard Desmond's empire is a curious thing: on the one hand, you have newspapers that worry about immigration and have strayed into toxic territory by giving positive coverage to the English Defence League; on the other, you have magazines like OK!, so fluffy and inoffensive that turning the pages is like being pelted with Care Bears.

Perhaps it's with one eye on detoxifying his newspaper brands that Desmond has branched out with the Health Lottery, a fundraising enterprise that aims to give £50m a year to health charities. With 20.5p per £1 ticket going to those charities (compared with 28p per £1 for the National Lottery), the scheme will have to sell 243 million units a year to hit that goal – but as there are so many promotional outlets available to market the new game, don't write it off. We'll be seeing the Health Lottery on Channel 5, and reading about it in the Express, the Star and OK! Magazine – something to look forward to for us all, there.

Described as "an exciting new lottery" by the Daily Express and as "Northern & Shell's exciting new brand" by Channel 5's Kate Walsh at the press conference, the Health Lottery is a laudable venture. Even those of us who aren't Desmond's biggest fans should wish it well – not just because of the charity element, but because, perhaps, it marks a turning point for his newspapers.

With such a generous venture in the pipeline, Desmond moved to distance his publications from the English Defence League – and the Daily Star on Sunday at the weekend even took a potshot at the Little Englanders, showing a "chilling photo" of EDLers with guns (or replica guns) in their hands, highlighting racist chants and mentioning a "sick Nazi salute". Getting readers by confirming people's prejudices about immigration is one thing; seeming to give tacit support to a polarising organisation such as the EDL is quite another.

The closer Desmond brings his brands together – and the cross-promotion shows no sign of letting up right now – the less spiky the likes of the Star and Express will have to become. That might erode a little of the character of the newspapers, but it might chip away at their nastier side, too. Headlines like BBC PUTS MUSLIMS BEFORE YOU or THEY'VE STOLEN ALL OUR JOBS don't sit nicely alongside the cheerful, breezy tone of OK! magazine or the mass appeal of Channel 5's shows like Home and Away.

Pandering to Little Englanders every now and again might have done a good job in retaining a few hardcore readers for the Express and the Star, but that kind of tactic might become a hindrance when you're trying to make those readers hop over to OK!, or get OK readers to hop over to the Express, or Channel 5 viewers to buy your newspapers as well.

Here's wishing the Health Lottery well, then. It could raise a lot of money for charity and it could mark the end of the bad old days for the Express and the Star. It may seem unlikely, but I'll take a gamble . . .

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29 comments

Tue, 2011-03-01 16:29 — Col. Richard Hindrance (Mrs) (not verified)

At least you can spell that right.

Tue, 2011-03-01 17:25 — Minority Thought (not verified)

Not very bright, are you, "ROME88"?

Tue, 2011-03-01 17:28 — 5cc (not verified)

Wonder how many goats have got over his bridge.

Wed, 2011-03-02 13:43 — MJ (not verified)

Ol' Dirty Des is panicking. Circulation is falling and the little England stunts aren't working in his papers (Especially with Advertisers). So taking the softer approach is the only way out to try drive his circulation back up and ensure cross brand pollination between his outlets.

Though I don't see a cross pollination between the Daily Star and Asian Babes any time soon though.

Tue, 2011-03-01 17:38 — 5cc (not verified)

On topic - I certainly hope you're right. Actual support for a bunch of hooligans looking for a fight who can't cause trouble at football any more was a spectacularly low point in a history of low points for the British press. Not quite 'hurrah for the blackshirts!' but not far off.

Let's hope the scaremongering over how many babies/doctors/people aren't white British stops too.

Wed, 2011-03-02 13:44 — Mr Larrington (not verified)

Rich, I think you mean "the QUEEN'S ENGLISH not BRITISH".

and so on.

Wed, 2011-03-02 15:39 — Alan (not verified)

The EDL doesn't need the mainstream media, word is already out and people will draw their own conclusions based upon the deeply fearful, fractured UK that they see in front of their own eyes.

Today we live in the internet age and one only needs to check Facebook to see the huge swathe of public opinion the EDL represents. Already 80,000 followers, a figure set to overtake all 3 of the main political parties well before the end of the year.

My only hope is that the EDL fully capitalise on their massive following. A new political party based upon the same common sense principles as the Dutch PVV founded by Geert Wilders could blow apart the current political landscape.

Wed, 2011-03-02 15:46 — Eric Carter

Surely this is number umpteen in John (Independent) Rentoul's questions to which the answer is no.

Wed, 2011-03-02 16:53 — dilberto

According to a recent poll there is substantial potential support among the British people for the aims of groups like the EDL, shouldn't a broad, representative and diverse media not reflect that? If not then people are entitled to ask just whose interests does the media actually serve.

Tue, 2011-03-01 19:33 — Col. Richard Hindrance (Mrs) (not verified)

But not bright enough NOT to admit to terrorist activity on a public website. Hope you enjoy prison food, Mr not-a-fascist.

Wed, 2011-03-02 18:24 — MJ (not verified)

"whose interests does the media actually serve."

Their own.

If you really think the Daily Star supported the EDL for five minutes because of the peoples will, you are hilariously misinformed. The media only cares about its own circulation. The EDL support was a publicity stunt to try boost circulation and Desmond shut it down extremely quickly when he found out.

The only thing that matters is circulation and advertising to them. If Richard Desmond thought it was profitable, he would have continued instead of killing it. If anything, the media going softer is them realising that there's a market in those they are demonising (See The Sun having a semi-regular column from their "Muslim correspondent").

If anything, the question for pressure groups in the next few years will be "Would we be profitable to the media" before trying to engage the public.

Tue, 2011-03-01 20:00 — Col. Richard Hindrance (Mrs) (not verified)

You really are a twat, aren't you?

Thu, 2011-03-03 15:22 — demonax3

Can see that many of the commentators are seriously challenged readers of

Tue, 2011-03-01 20:55 — Theremin (not verified)

Don't mind ROME. It's hard for him to type coherently when masturbating furiosly to pictures of Hitler.

Tue, 2011-03-01 20:56 — Rich (not verified)

"ROME88: YES"

Even the most stopped of clocks is right twice a day. Go on, agree you're a twat again and that'll be twice.

Sat, 2011-12-03 15:57 — RidgleyStanford

Stone Island is long since passé on the neo-nazi english nationalist scene. Galliano is far more chic for the drunken skinhead set as they seek to look stylish as well as scary when taking to the streets in pogroms to beat up random passing Muslims. http://www.carinsurancehq.net/

Tue, 2011-03-01 22:05 — Paul Bailey (not verified)

I always find it's the most persuasive arguments that need backing up with neanderthal threats of violence and foul language, don't you?

Mon, 2011-03-07 18:35 — Oppose neo-Nazi Scumbags (not verified)

The weasel pro-EDL comment about them becoming a successful political party is written by Alan Lake, the Adolf Hitler admirer.

Read more about Alan Lake's EDL Final Solution: -

http://1millionunited.org/blogs/blog/2010/06/03/alan-lakes-edl-final-sol...

Pure hardcore neo-Nazi genocidal fantasies from EDL's supreme funder London millionaire Alan Lake.

Wed, 2011-03-02 20:54 — ROME88 (not verified)

Can somebody delete the neo-Nazi troll Rome88, please. This is not Stormfront, but an educated site, so please admin.
What the fcuk r u doing on it then bell end?

Wed, 2011-03-02 01:32 — Stephen (not verified)

Can somebody delete the neo-Nazi troll Rome88, please. This is not Stormfront, but an educated site, so please admin.

The EDL Hitler supporter can kindly return to Stormponce to make his "Roman" salutes to his stiff-armed fuhrer comrades, leaving the New Statesman for people with brains.

On a lighter note, I wander if Galliano will be knitting EDL facemasks, LOL LOL LOL

This would mean more EDL members money siphoned off by Stephen Yaxley Lennon to buy more expensive mansions with his "get rich quick" schemes.

For the latest anti-racist info, please check out Indymedia and Lancaster Unity.

Wed, 2011-03-02 01:40 — Troll Destroya (not verified)

Yes, indeed, admin, delete the neo-Nazi troll ASAP.

"Rome88" sounds like the braindead EDL/BNP trolls you get on Indymedia.

Yaxley's Laughing All The Way To The Bank's picture

Wed, 2011-03-02 01:50 — Yaxley's Laughing All The Way To The Bank (not verified)

Apparently Galliano is throwing his act in with the far right since everybody in the fashion world i shunning his designs for evermore.

BREAKING NEWS: - Galliano will be making leopardskin "man-burkas" for the avante-garde extreme rightist EDL football hooligan.

Their next riot (sorry, protest) will feature an anti_Islamic catwalk strutt, introducing the new Galliano top-of-the-range EDL merchandise for the upwardly mobile working class EDLers.

KER-CHING! TOMMY ROBINSON!!!

Wed, 2011-03-02 01:59 — Far Right Scam Watch (not verified)

Yaxley Lennon's only in the EDL to make money from bonehead EDL thickos!

Serves them right if he is buying expensive properties with EDL merchandise money.

The average EDLer is too thick to know they are being shafted by Stephen Yaxley Lennon.

Tue, 2011-03-01 14:06 — Danger HAM (not verified)

If i enter lottey like this I would hope that I would win large piece of medical equiment like perhaps an MRS scan or some surgery tools or at least perhaps backup prize of slippery shiny glistening surgical glove, but does the NHS need thier assets sold off like this to winners? What will the doctor cut with - A SPADE?? I am not you (Stephen Baxter) but if I went under the knife and the doctor just had an old pencil and a rusty brush to scrape at my torso with would be suprised and upset. Also you have to bear in mind some of Richard Desmond's "other" brands by which I mean the hot chicks in the little pants.

Tue, 2011-03-01 14:33 — zsremrxc

Richard Desmond's empire is cursed as much as he is... !

Wed, 2011-03-02 08:34 — Rich (not verified)

Really, Rome, I have to upbraid you there, Aryan White sorry INDIGENOUS Brother. That's the QUEEN'S ENGLISH you're writing there, the ENGLISH of SHAKESPEARE and WINSTON CHURCHILL and JIM DAVIDSON. And yet you scrabble about mangling it all up like those Foreigns that COME OVER HERE and CAN'T SPEAK THE WHITE sorry INDIGENOUS language properly. Really, it's making a mockery of your otherwise slow-witted and risible arguments.

Tue, 2011-03-01 14:49 — Col. Richard Hindrance (Mrs) (not verified)

Oh, how delightful - a fascist.

Care to explain to the rest of the class what the '88' in your moniker signifies, ROME88? If you have the balls to do more than make badly spelt playground threats that is...

Tue, 2011-03-01 15:05 — Col. Richard Hindrance (Mrs) (not verified)

Not really, since I've you to compare myself against.

So I was wrong about your name, big fucking whoop. The fact that you SOUNDED like a neo-nazi thug and have a boner for the neo-fascist EDL was what threw me, yobbo.

I'm not surprised you've pissed yourself, by the way. Lack of bladder control and drooling idiocy tend to go together.

Tue, 2011-03-15 16:17 — PeteyMcPeterson

Could we leave the nazi douchebag in please, it always cracks me up to read these kind of comments, and makes me feel a lot smarter.

Sorrt to sound cynical about the express, but I'll believe it when I see it. While it might be financially fortuitous to soften their vocab somewhat, these papers are always going to be trying to appeal to the biggest (and most gulliable) demographic, and job losses all over the country are going to give fuel to the zany EDL etc fire.

Perhaps we'll see Holocoust deniers and anti semites in OK magazine, that would be fun.