Mail Men

Discover the secret history of the paper that has shaped Britain and taken over the world. Perhaps because of the power and fear that the Daily Mail commands, this is the first book to provide an unauthorized account of the newspaper with more global readers than any other. With a gripping personality-led narrative, informed by sources near the top of the paper, Mail Men investigates the secret behind the Mail’s extraordinary longevity and commercial success. But, it also examines the controversies that have beset the paper—from its owner’s flirtation with fascism in the 1930s to its fractious relationship with liberals, celebrities and politicians today. Asking why the Mail attracts such anger around the world, Addison explores how insiders view the furore the paper creates both in its print and online incarnation. He also uses his numerous contacts to ask how the paper has stayed relevant for over a century. How has MailOnline built such a huge global audience by focussing on celebrity gossip, in apparent tension with the sometimes puritanical values of its sister print edition? Gripping and revealing, this book gives a previously unseen insight into the colorful cast of senior MailMen (yes, nearly all men) who have molded the paper through the decades—from Alfred C. Harmsworth, the Mail’s founder and first owner, a frenetic genius who invented the popular press as we know it, to Martin Clarke, the fearsome Scot who runs MailOnline, the most popular newspaper website in the world.