Editor-in-chief of Daily Mail group, which runs most popular newspaper website in the world, airs views in New Yorker profile
The editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail group, which runs the most-viewed newspaper website in the world, has described the American press as "complacent," "self-regarding" and "too up themselves".
In a lengthy profile of the British newspaper group in the New Yorker this week, Paul Dacre says that while American journalism can be the finest in the world, it has become hidebound by monopoly.
Dacre, who famously does not give many interviews, told the New Yorker's Lauren Collins: "At its best, American journalism is unbeatable. But the problem with many of your newspapers is that they became too high-minded, too complacent, and self-regarding. As they became increasingly monopolist, some of them also became – if you'll forgive the phrase – too up themselves.
"They forgot that there's a huge market out there of people who are serious-minded but also want some fun in their reading."
Mail Online, boosted by its steady stream of celebrity gossip and scare stories, surpassed the New York Times in December to become the most read newspaper on the web. It reached 45.3 million people last December, compared to the Times's 44.8 million, according to comScore. A New York Times spokeswoman said at the time that the Mail had only beaten the Times by including a personal finance website in its total.
By February, comScore calculates the Mail had extended its lead to 47.44 million, while the Times had stayed flat at 44.83 million viewers.
A spokeswoman for the Times declined to comment on Dacre's comments or the comScore figures.
"They're not in our competitive set, to be honest," Martin Clarke, the editor of Mail Online, told the New Yorker when he was asked about the Times's response to being overtaken online. "I did think they were spectacularly sore losers, but I could not care less if we overtake the New York Times. What matters to me is: are we bigger than MSN? Are we bigger than Yahoo?"
Dan Kennedy, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University andmedia blogger, said the New York Times probably didn't see the Mail as direct competition either. "I think there's probably a category error here," he said. "If they were being beaten by the Washington Post or the Guardian, they'd be apoplectic."
"What's made Mail Online a success is its heritage," Clarke told the New Yorker. "Fleet Street newspapers have always had eclectic taste, which makes us perfect for the internet. The beauty of this is that Britain's always exported its creative talent, going back to Charles Dickens, but we've never really been able to export our actual journalism itself."
In the profile, Collins describes the Mail's intuitive understanding of its readers – and how it has distinguished its website from the paper. She notes Dacre's reputation for strong language in news meetings, although she reports that this was expunged in her presence – a fact revealed by the satirical magazine Private Eye.
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