Paper Monitor
10:44 UK time, Friday, 24 August 2007
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Is it Paper Monitor's imagination or is the Independent - you know, cruelty, dolphins etc - on the Daily Mail diet for the summer?
Soon after its "MELTDOWN" front page that wasn't about the polar ice caps at all, but about the turmoil on the economic markets, there's more doom, gloom and apocalypse.
This time it's growing household debt that's the new enemy (note the Victorian morality tale) that's keeping the splash sub-editor busy.
Laudable though it is that the Indie continues to go it alone and resists leading with the more emotive story the rest of Fleet Street pores over, maybe its editorial staff should have first read to calm their panic-stricken, debt-inducing nerves.
And lingering a little longer with the Independent, a warning to Paper Monitor readers fed up with seeing Vladimir Putin's bare torso for the 871st time, accompanied by the oh-so-original line about how Russia is "flexing its muscles" in a new Cold War. Avoid page 23.
At least it makes a change from all the photogenic 16-year-old girls receiving their GCSE A* grades. Do boys get their results next week?
Meanwhile the Daily Mirror is busy further underlining its proud reputation by putting "EXCLUSIVE" on any story with a pulse.
Its "EXCLUSIVE" tag on an interview with Camelot's Dot Renshaw, who helps lottery millionaires adjust to fame, may come as a surprise to those who enjoyed the Observer's feature on Sunday and a similar interview in the Daily Express eight days ago.
But it's not all harmony at the Sun, where hymn sheet distribution seems to have gone awry. After months of stories about X-Factor, stoking anticipation ahead of the new series, the paper's television reviewer Ally Ross appears to be a little off-message while slating the first episode as "formula-driven as hell".
Seven pages on, the paper's showbiz columnist Victoria Newton devotes her plug - sorry, I mean lead story - to the show.
And the story? Fascinating as it is, Paper Monitor is not in the habit of stealing precious seconds from the busy lives of its readers. And so farewell.
The 
