The press may commonly be referred to as a 'pack' but I struggle to remember a week when they have hunted (or more accurately gathered) as one to such a degree.
It was widely commented upon yesterday how every national paper used the same image of the Millbank riot. Then today, with the exception of The Daily Star and The Independent, it's Emma Watson at the premiere of the latest Harry Potter movie that graces the front page of the nationals - with The Sun and The Mirror picking exactly the same snap of Watson taken from behind (so to speak). Clearly editors are united in the unshakeable belief that the British public want posh totty on a Friday morning.
It's easy to think of this across-the-board unity in running with these pics as a sign of success - 'congrats, you all picked the day's big picture story' - but being right about such things is nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy and I wonder if such a 'safety in numbers' approach may actually be unhealthy for newspapers.
In the hire 'em, fire 'em world of I.T. there is a figure of speech that hints at the relative merits of playing it safe amid the herd, rather than innovating. It goes that "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM".
Perhaps in the hire 'em, fire 'em world of newspapers, it goes that "nobody ever got fired for putting a photo of Emma Watson in a see-through dress on the front page".
Comments